My Brother's Keeper - re:TUNED
by jljj1996
Summary: After a botched attempt at Chaos Control separated him from his younger brother, Josh now faces the daunting task of hunting down the Chaos Emeralds in order to reunite with him. It won't be easy, as Dr. Eggman has his sights set on the Emeralds for his own nefarious purposes. It's a race against time as Josh, along with some familiar allies, rushes to reunite with his brother.
1. Prologue

_**Re-Tuned**_

Prologue

He watched the microwave impatiently as it spun his pizza around and around. A minute felt like forever on an empty stomach. He regretted not paying more attention to his mom cooking, he might have learned some quick recipes. He glanced over at the colorfully marked calendar hanging on the fridge. In bright red, his mother had written "Anniversary Dinner," followed by a 19 that was trapped inside a heart. He smiled. He hoped they were having a good time. He wondered what his mom would want to do for their 20th anniversary. Something creative probably, a weekend off in a cabin somewhere. His dad would like that, especially if he got to go fishing.

The microwave finally started to beep. He made a beeline towards the white box and threw open the door, exposing his now sizzling pizza to the open air once more. He eyed it hungrily. It was perfect. He reached for the plate, but jolted back when the plate burned him. He immediately began running his fingers under some cold water, feeling the icy relief from the red and slightly irritated burn. He turned to dry his hands off when the phone started to ring. Looking longingly at his pizza, he quickly ran his hands over a towel before picking up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Yes, we need you to come to the hospital right away."

He felt his world shut down, an icy shiver crept down his spine as the world seemed to simultaneously spin and close in on him. The room began to contort and change, the cabinet shrinking down, stretching out, and splitting to turn into two hospital gurneys, the microwave twisting and squishing as it turned into a heart rate monitor, and his pizza melting and bubbling and turning red until it turned into-

He had to look away. He prayed that someone would take it away. He counted to ten before slowly turning back. He was in a hospital room now. Two beds lay in front of him, with two bodies laying on top, covered with two white sheets. He couldn't see the faces, but he knew who they were.

"Can you please identify them?"

He slowly shook his head. "Please don't make me do this."

"We just need you to look, very quickly."

He shook his head again. He couldn't look. Not again.

"Please. We just need a positive ID."

He did his best to swallow past the lump that had formed in his throat as he slowly made his way to the first gurney. His hand trembled as he reached toward the sheet covering the body. He began to sweat profusely. He didn't want to look. He couldn't bear to see it.

He gripped the top of the white fabric. He tried his best to calm his nerves. Just one quick look. Slowly, he began to peel the fabric back. He saw the hair… there was no doubt.

"It's him." He said.

"Please just look at the face."

He turned back to the corpse. He felt tears gather in his eyes. He didn't want to see this. He decided he needed to get it over with quick.

He ripped the sheet back, as if he were ripping off a bandage.

* * *

Josh's eyes shot open, and he gasped for air. His blue eyes darted around the room, taking in their surroundings.

He was back in his room.

The teen started to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

"It was just a dream." He intoned under his breath. "Just a dream."

He turned in his bed onto his side and snatched his digital alarm clock up from his night stand. He pressed a small button on top, causing the display to glow a soft blue.

 _2:30 am._

Josh rubbed his eyes as he set the clock back on the night stand. He quickly wiped the sweat that had formed on his brow, and ran a hand through his damp, blonde hair.

"Just a dream." He returned to his previous mantra, trying to convince himself that what he had seen hadn't actually happened.

"But they did…" He thought bitterly. Tears began to sting at his eyes. He knew what was coming.

"Josh?" A tired voice croaked from the other side of the room. In the darkness Josh could see another figure sitting up in bed, groggily rubbing the sleep from his eyes as well.

"Sorry Jake, did I wake you?" Josh whispered to his younger brother. Jacob rubbed a hand over his face and through his brown, buzz-cut hair.

"Kinda…" The boy whispered back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Josh did his best to put some enthusiasm into his voice. "Just had a bad dream, that's all."

"Was it about mom and dad again?"

The question almost made Josh crack right then and there. But he kept his composure. Jacob didn't need to worry.

"Josh, you've been having that nightmare ever since it happened." Jacob seemed a bit more alert now. He paused, letting a silence fill the room as he waited for some kind of explanation from Josh. Josh sat quietly, forcing himself to breath evenly.

"It's just a dream." Josh repeated. "Nothing you need to worry about." He forced a smile, even though he knew Jacob couldn't see it. "Just go back to bed, I'll see you in the morning. "

Jacob reluctantly nodded. However, rather than falling back onto his pillow, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and padded barefoot to the door.

"Where are you going?" Josh whispered a little more fiercely. "It's too early to be getting up!"

"I just need to go to the bathroom!" Jacob hissed back.

"Hurry then, and don't wake anyone else up with your trumpet practice!" Josh warned. He could imagine his brother rolling his eyes as he walked out the door and quietly slid it shut. Josh let the smile quickly droop from his face. He slowly lowered himself back down to his pillow. Sleep wasn't going to come easily tonight… not again. He curled up as tightly as he could, bringing the covers to his face.

"Just a dream… just a dream…"

* * *

"We are ready to launch into Egg Drive Dr. Eggman." A tinny voice called to him from one of the stations below him. The Doctor sneered even wider.

"Excellent." He replied, his gravely voice betraying his not-at-all-hidden excitement. "Initiate on my mark." The red-clad Doctor looked back down at his personal monitor to double check that he had the correct coordinates. He allowed his goggle-covered eyes to wander over to the radar, where a small green blip was flashing somewhere ahead of them. In a matter of mere moments, he would finally have what he needed. The one of the last pieces to his master plan. Then he would finally, FINALLY, defeat his nemesis and create his utopia.

"Waiting on you sir." A robot from the control panel squeaked. Normally, a comment like that might have set the Doctor off… but today was a good day. Today, one of his plans would work. Today, he would make history!

"Engage Egg Drive in T min-"

The Doctor flew back into his chair as the ship launched across the galaxy at incredible speed. He angrily screamed something about not finishing his countdown to one of the robots, all the while trying to remind himself that yes, this was going to be a good day.

 **Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed this little snippet of my new project: My Brother's Keeper Re-Tuned! I am very excited to be working on My Brother's Keeper again! So, the reason for this new title is that I really want to take the story and give it a face lift, work on the pacing, get a better back story for our main characters, and try to make things a little more coherent and enjoyable and less angsty writings from a lonely teenager, so you might see some chapters (like the first seven) get a total makeover, while others may get just a touch up! I'm in college, so I can't guarantee a steady stream of content, but I will do my best to work on this as I find time! You guys are my motivation, so the more you guys review, favorite, and share this story with your friends, the more likely it is that I will get another chapter out rather quickly!  
**

 **Get ready to dive deep into the world of My Brother's Keeper Re-Tuned, a familiar story with a few new twists and turns! As I work on this, feel free to contact me with any questions you have, and I'll try and put up something chapter for you guys to respond to, like a suggestion or a question. If I like your answer, I'll give you some credit in the post script (this bold part down here) and I might even include it in the story! I will try to take any and all suggestions you have for the story, but just be aware that I have a pretty good idea of where this is all going and how it will end, so don't be offended if your idea doesn't show up here! Who knows… you might see it show up somewhere else… :)**

 **Cheers!**

 **-JJ**


	2. Chapter 1 - They're Heeeere

re:TUNED

Chapter 1

The moment I woke up, I knew it was going to be a rough day. My eyes simply refused to open, and when they did, they had a hard time staying that way. They burned in that way your eyes do when you stay up too late studying for an exam. I groaned and shut my eyes again as the sun began to leak into my room and onto my face. Mornings like this weren't all that uncommon anymore. Didn't change the fact that it still sucked every time I had to wake up.

I slowly sat up, grateful that school still wouldn't start for a couple more weeks, meaning I could still take a quick nap after breakfast. As much as I would have loved to fall back to sleep, if I didn't head down now, I wouldn't get any cinnamon rolls. They were pretty much the only reason I didn't just sleep through the morning and hole myself up in my room all day. I dropped my legs over the side of the bed and slipped my feet into my slippers, yawning as I stood up and stumbled to the door. I looked over to the side of the room opposite my bed, toward the empty, matching bed that resided there. Jacob was already up, of course. He had probably beaten the sun and woke up early to go play his video games. It was how he dealt with everything going on.

I opened our bedroom door as quietly as I could and started to walk down the hallway, passing about four other rooms before I reached the stairs. The group home we were living in was slightly bigger than others, holding ten kids instead of the average six (according to the Wikipedia article I read before we got there.) We had been here for about three months as we waited for a foster family to come take care of us. Most of the younger kids were able to move in and out fairly quickly. I and my brother weren't having as much luck, though I suppose it made sense. If I've learned anything from movies and books, older kids had a hard time being fostered or adopted. And a sixteen and thirteen years old definitely counted as older.

I stepped into the kitchen as was greeted by the smell of warm bread and cinnamon. I smiled a bit as my eyes slowly closed. The smell was intoxicating. Sometimes, nothing made me happier than that little sweet burst in the morning. I drifted past the main table, large enough to hold all of us in the home, towards the door separating us from the cooking area.

Most kids weren't allowed in the kitchen. As the oldest in the house, I was the one exception. I knew my way around a kitchen, so our caretaker appreciated the help. As I stepped through the door, the smell of the cinnamon rolls grew even stronger, making my mouth water. Along with it, I heard the soft humming of the woman in charge.

"Ms. Hannigan?" I called out. Our caretaker's blonde head poked around a corner and smiled.

"Right on time Josh!" The young woman replied, stepping completely into view and wiping her hands on an old, creme colored apron. She would never tell us her age, but I had to guess she was in her late 20s to early 30s. She was tall and lean, a very attractive woman, which made it all the more surprising that she hasn't been able to find a man to be with. Despite her ironic name, Ms. Hannigan was one of the kindest people I knew, dedicating her life to helping kids like us who have nothing. Having lost her parents herself, she knew the pain and struggles we all faced, and also knew the happiness that could come from finding a new home. She fought tooth and nail to find every child a home they would be happy in. I and Jacob had been a bit of a challenge for her since we arrived about three months ago.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked, jumping right into my duties for the day. She knew better than to tell me I didn't need to do anything. The first couple of days, I insisted on helping, needing to do something, and refusing to take no for an answer. It's now become part coping mechanism, part habit.

"Icing." Ms. Hannigan pointed to a large, steel mixing bowl as well as a few ingredients laying about. "Add and mix quick, I think the first batch is almost done." I nodded and immediately got to work, measuring and mixing as fast as I could while still being accurate. I had quite a bit of practice, I almost fell into a trance as I methodically poured ingredient after ingredient, mixing wet and dry, whisking as quickly as I could until a syrupy, white liquid emerged. I carried the bowl back towards the oven just as Ms. Hannigan pulled out a sheet of large, golden brown cinnamon rolls. The smell was almost overpowering, I had to stop for a moment and appreciate the scent, warming me up from head to toe.

"I love cinnamon roll Thursday…" I muttered, my eyes fluttering closed as I continued to take in the scent.

"Icing please Josh!" Ms. Hannigan reminded, scurrying out of the room and into the dining area. I snapped out of my trance and scuttled behind her, carefully carrying the bowl, trying not to spill. She set the sheet down and took the icing from me. I watched entranced as she tipped the bowl, the white icing cascading down onto the large, fluffy rolls, seeping into the small crevices, covering the rolls in a white sheen. I almost didn't notice the small tugging at my pajama shirt.

"Are the skinnamin rolls almost ready?" A small voice asked me. I snapped out of my trance and looked down, smiling.

"Morning Rosa!" I replied, crouching down to the young girl's level. The girl smiled back, showing off the cute gap in her teeth from having lost one just a few days ago. "It's cinnamon, and they're almost done."

The young girl clapped happily, obviously just as excited as I felt. Her brown eyes twinkled and her brown pigtails bobbed up and down as she jumped for joy. I chuckled as I watched her. The young girl, no more than 5, lost her parents in a plane crash. Her mother and father were visiting their homeland of Guatemala, when one of the engines failed, sending the plane careening into the ocean. She was old enough to understand what happened but young enough that, after about a month of staying here, she was more or less over it. She took a nearly instant shining to me and Jacob, and she became a rather special friend for us.

"But you have to wait outside." I continued. "You know the rules, you can't be back here." Rosa nodded and quickly exited. I could hear the chatter of the other excited children, getting in line in front of the currently shuttered window.

"Roll 'er up!" I heard Ms. Hannigan call out, followed by the muffled sound of cheering from just beyond. I pressed a button to the side of the window and the old, metal contraption creaked to life, slowly rolling up the window to reveal 8 young smiling faces and 1 tired looking one near the back of the line. I looked back at my younger brother. We found that we were able to communicate somewhat with each other simply by looking at each other. Nothing complicated like twins, but we could get our message across fairly well. I gave him a small smile.

 _Are you ok?_

His mouth went a bit crooked.

 _I guess._

I sighed a bit. He was taking it as well as you could ask, but I always got the feeling there was more going on underneath that he liked to admit. He tried to act tough around me, perhaps because I was the more sensitive one. I was prone to emotional outburst, while Jacob knew how to hold himself together. It was sometimes him that would drag me out of bed the first couple of weeks. I blamed myself for his unwillingness to break down around me. I knew it was at least, in part, my fault.

"Go get in line Josh," Ms. Hannigan said, gently touching my shoulder. "I can take it from here." As much as I would have like to have stayed and helped, I knew that being in the kitchen in front of the other kids did set a bad example. We didn't want Ms. Hannigan to be accused of picking favorites. I obediently slipped out of the kitchen and retreated to the back of the line, joining my brother. I give him a little shake and another small smile.

 _I'm here for you._

He smiled back.

 _I know._

* * *

I quickly slipped out of my pajamas and into some simple clothes, jeans and a t-shirt. I studied myself in a mirror hanging next to the closet my brother and I shared. I brushed my hand lightly across my hair a few times, getting the spike in the front to stand up again. I looked over at Jacob, who staring intently at something on one of the closet shelves. I stood behind him, peering in to see.

"You really like to ogle that thing, don't you." I teased, motioning to the object in question.

"Yeah, it's cool!" Jacob replied. "It looks like a Chaos Emerald!"

Jacob loved his video games, and he loved none of them more than he loved Sonic the Hedgehog. At home, you would find him playing whatever was the newest release whenever he had time. Here, it became more of a release, a way to destress, forget what was going on. I couldn't blame him, I found myself sitting next to him more and more, watching the screen intently, sometimes wondering what it was like in Sonic's world. Jacob didn't have many things as far as collectibles went, preferring to save for the games, but he did buy one thing: A replica Chaos Emerald. We didn't think it was officially licensed by Sega, we bought it from a Chinese thrift store that sold the gems by the dozen for about $10 each, but Jacob thought it was the most mind-blowing thing. He finally settled on a green one, saying how it "called out" to him or something. Either way, he always kept it in a special place, where he and only he would usually see it.

"You should just invest in a real one, you can tell this is just a fake!" I replied, ruffling his short, fuzzy hair.

"The real ones cost a ton!" Jacob whined as he closed the closet door. "And this looks totally real!"

"Sure." I snickered, smoothing out my shirt a bit more. "You keep telling yourself-" I stopped as a shiver passed through my body. I felt my heart pump just a bit faster. My palms began to sweat a bit. Jacob noticed the change in me and looked serious.

"Where?" He asked, walking to me.

"The window," I replied. Both of us immediately walked towards the window in our room and opened it, peering outside. We scanned the front yard and the street.

"...False alarm?" I guessed.

"When was the last time that happened?" Jacob said, his eyes still scanning. "Your creepy senses are never wrong."

My "creepy senses," as my brother started calling them, are almost like a warning signal. I wouldn't call them powers or psychic ability because it doesn't always work. But whenever I feel like how I did at that moment, it usually means something's wrong. The trick is figuring out what.

"I still don't see anything…" I finally said, after what felt like hours looking outside.

"There's got to be something," Jacob muttered. I was about to contest when we soon got our answer. We felt it before we heard it. A low rumbling. The glass in the window started to shake.

"An earthquake?" I asked, looking at Jacob. Jacob shrugged before we started to hear a low, deep, whirring noise, like the propeller to a jet or a helicopter. Except, this sounded like dozens of them, and they had to be huge. Jacob and I immediately stuck our heads out the window and looked up, only to find blue skies and white clouds. I ran out the door into one of the opposite bedrooms, Rosa and her roommate's room. They already had their noses pressed against the glass, listening and looking.

"See anything?" I asked as I opened the window.

"Uh uh!" Rosa replied, shaking her head, making her pigtails flop around. I looked up at the sky. Nothing.

"It's scary!" Her roommate cried, the young girl frowning.

"I'm not scared!" Rosa said proudly, placing her hands on her hips. I closed the window back up.

"Stay in your room girls." I called as I hurried out the door and down the stairs to the living room. Ms. Hannigan already had the television turned on, a phone pressed against her ear. Jacob was already with her, holding the TV remote, flipping through channels.

"I can't believe it either!" She exclaimed. "It's on every station! None of them know what's going on!" I entered the room further to look at the TV. Different news anchors flashed on and off the screen as Jacob flicked through.

"Everyone is saying the sound is coming from right above us!" Jacob exclaimed, motioning to the TV with the remote. "It's like those YouTube videos with that sound everyone around the world heard."

"Those are a thing?" I asked, sounding a bit unimpressed.

"People think the noises are caused by aliens!"

"You think we're experiencing alien activity right now?"

"You got a better theory?"

"No. But come on, aliens from a different planet, that's ridiculous! Besides, what would they want from us?" I continued to stare at the TV screen, which became nearly impossible to hear over the now roaring sound of the… well, the whatever it was.

* * *

"We've found the Chaos Emerald sir!" A robot called from the control deck. Eggman cackled.

"Excellent." He crooned, rubbing his hands together. "Send ground troops to storm the building."

"But sir, that's an orphanage." A voice to his right said. Eggman looked over to the robot next to him. Orbot was pointing to a camera view of the place. The red and black robot with the round head retracted his hand. "There'll be children in there, young children." Eggman examined the display carefully and harumphed.

"Well… send in some big robots to stop around the front door, we'll scare them into giving it to us." Eggman sneered, putting his hands together again.

"But I thought we didn't want to attract attention!" A much more irritating voice yelled. Eggman glared at Cubot, the yellow and black, cube headed counterpart to Orbot. "You said that yourself!"

"We seem to be doing a poor job of that," Orbot replied, pointing to another camera feed showing dozens of news reporters standing around the city. "They're talking about us!"

"Think they can see us?!" Cubot shrieked excitedly as he rushed to a window, waving.

"No, we have the Egg-Camo up, there's no way-"

"SHUT UP!" Eggman roared, slamming his fists on his chair. All the robots in the room immediately stopped working, looking up at their boss. "We're just going to send down a couple of ground troops, knock on their door, and demand the Chaos Emerald, everyone happy?"

"A great idea boss!" Orbot chimed. "I'll go get the soldiers ready!" And with that, the robot floated away into another sector of the ship. Eggman crossed his arms and grumbled to himself angrily. He watched for a moment as Cubot continued to wave out various windows, trying to catch someone's attention. The Doctor rolled his eyes and rested his head on his fist.

"Honestly, I built these things? I could have done so much better!"


	3. Chapter 2 - Domo Arigato Killer Roboto

**Just gonna post this quietly and hopefully no one will notice that it took me much to long to upload it...**

* * *

The droning had been going on for a good ten minutes or so, and showed no sign of stopping. I stared up anxiously at the sky, trying to catch a glimpse of… something, I wasn't quite sure what. Jacob was right, the noise, whatever it was, was directly over us, a fact I confirmed with a simple walk around the area. Yet no one could make heads or tails of it. Even when news choppers did a fly by overhead, the most interesting footage they could capture was of a stray bird suddenly dropping from the sky for a moment before flying in the opposite direction. Strange, and slightly hilarious, but of no help to us. I crossed back inside and looked at Ms. Hannigan to see if she had learned something. She was busily tapping and scrolling through her new smartphone, her fingers and eyes moving and twitching at a rapid pace.

"According to Twitter, lots of people are agreeing with Jake on this." She reported, looking up at me briefly. "And #aliens is the trending tag in the city right now."

"You don't really think it's aliens, do you?" I crossed my arms, cocking my eyebrow up at her.

"Of course not!" She replied, shooting me a dirty look. "But until we get any better ideas, this is the working theory."

I sighed a bit and watched a window shake for a moment, allowing my thoughts to wander. "...Jacob said that there were videos of this happening in other places, didn't he?"

"Yeah… that's where things get weirder." She pulled a pair of earbuds from her pocket and began to work on untangling them. "Me and Jacob pulled some up on YouTube. You'll want to hear this…" She swiftly plugged in the earbuds and handed them, along with phone, to me. I took a moment to admire the cutting edge phone, a testament to our tech-savvy caretaker's commitment to electronics and all things digital. The screen already had a video queued up, the frozen preview image depicting a street in a suburban area around twilight. I placed the high-end earbuds into my ears, amazed at how quiet the world became, and pressed play. Immediately, a strange, almost electronic sound filled my ears as the video came to life. A man, sounding to be in his 40s, began talking as best he could over the noise.

"Nope, no plane in sight." He said, his southern voice eaten up by the echoey hum. He kept talking every now and then to one of his neighbors, but it was largely indistinct. All in all, however, the situation seemed very similar, except for one thing: The sound in the video was different from ours. While ours sounded like someone was flying a jet over the home, the video noise sounded more ethereal and surreal. I looked down at the recommended videos and selected a similar looking one, titled "Strange noise over Atlanta." Similar concept, though this time out on a farm with a woman. Same noise as the other one. I looked up at Ms. Hannigan.

"Are all the videos like that?" I asked, yelling a bit accidentally. Ms. Hannigan nodded as I removed the earbuds. "So that proves it then, we're not dealing with what everyone else thought. No aliens, the sounds are completely different."

"Then what is it?"

I was admittedly at a loss for words. My mouth hung open slightly as I tried to come up with any sort of theory or explanation, but the only image I could conjure up were of little green men with large black eyes. I helplessly shrugged my shoulders. "Not aliens…?"

"Well, until we've gotten proof otherwise, we can't discount the crazy."

"But Ms. Hannigan-"

"Sherlock Holmes said 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.'" Ms. Hannigan smiled softly before turning back to her phone. "This whole situation is weird, so there could be a weird solution."

"Okay, but like, weird like a drone hooked up to a loudspeaker, not-"

"No matter how improbable Josh." She looked up over her phone with slightly mischievous eyes. She pushed her hands forward, looking like the guy from the "Aliens" meme for a moment, before heading back into the Twitter-verse or wherever she was looking. I stared at her blankly for a moment before walking back upstairs, listening as the noise got slightly louder. Definitely sounded like jet engines… and yet somehow they didn't. I let my mind scroll through anything I could think of that sounded similar as I pushed open the door to our room. Jacob was resting against the wall, his earbuds plugged in and most likely blasting loud music. I frowned a bit as I crossed the room and gently removed one of the buds.

"You doing ok?" I put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. His blue eyes regarded me distractedly for just a moment before looking back out the window.

"That bird on the news wasn't just a weird fluke." He said. "There's been two more in the past five minutes that just-" He smashed a fist into his other hand before letting it drop while whistling.

"Really?" I knelt slightly, looking up into the sky. Jacob pointed to another bird that was flying in our direction. We watched as the avian suddenly stopped and dropped out of the sky a few feet before flying in the opposite direction.

"There's something up there… something physical." He said distractedly, squinting as if he was trying to make out whatever it was. "...This is a little more advanced than what the military have I think…" I paused for a moment, realizing that the aliens theory was suddenly sounding more and more realistic as I squinted as well. There was no shimmer, no glint of light against the sun, nothing to indicate that there was something above us, only the sound of droning.

"Military?" I repeated. "Really?"

"They have cloaking tech, just not at this level I don't think." Jacob shrugged a bit. "Any theories from downstairs?"

"Ms. Hannigan is thinking aliens." I replied, looking back down at Jacob. "Next, someone's gonna tell me that the sky is falling." Jacob chuckled a bit.

"At this point, anything's possible." Jacob replied, moving away from the window. "Still feeling creeped out?" I did a quick check of my body. My palms were still slick, my heart was still thumping just a bit harder than it should. I was still feeling "creepy."

"Do you think it's dangerous?" I asked as quietly as I could over the noise as I crossed back to my bed and sat down. Jacob shrugged.

"Let's ask Ms. Hannigan to get everyone out." He replied. "Just in case." He stared blankly for a few minutes more before going to our shared closet and pulling out his Chaos Emerald. He took it everywhere with him, like a security blanket or a stuffed animal. He couldn't quite explain why it brought him comfort whenever I asked him about it, the best answer I got being it made him "feel powerful." I eyed the large lump that it formed in his pocket, knowing that I would have to help him break the attachment before school started, though, how to do that was beyond me. I told him to go to grief counseling like I was, but he would have none of it. He kept insisting he was fine, he was tough and he could handle it. I didn't quite understand why… but couldn't help but feel like it had to do with me, and how weak and depressed I was after… _it_ happened.

Jacob quickly left the room, to alert Ms. Hannigan, while I stayed for a moment longer, watching a seagull face plant into the invisible wall above our house. I couldn't help but stifle a chuckle as I walked out the door and back down the stairs, passing Ms. Hannigan on the way down.

"Make sure you guys get out to our meeting place, you know where to go." She told me as she passed.

"Of course." I said back as I pressed myself to the wall to allow her a little more room to pass. I made my way to the front door, before I saw Jacob, looking out the window at something. "What's up?  
"Dude, there's some guys in giant robot suits out there, it's so cool!" He exclaimed as he crossed from the window on the left to the right side of the door. He opened the door up and yelled to them, waving his hand. I chuckled.

"We're in the middle of an evacuation and you're focusing on a bunch of nerds in costume." I shook my head a bit as I looked out at the robot costumes. I had to admit, they were very well made, almost looking exactly like real metal! Even their movements looked mechanical, each heavy-looking leg stomping down with an appropriate metallic thudding sound. I'd have to ask them how they managed to do that later.

"Why are they here?" Jacob asked, looking up at me. I shrugged.

"They probably want to be on the news." I said, motioning towards the news crews at the end of the street. They were all speaking frantically, almost panicked. I squinted a bit, watching one point towards us. "Why aren't they getting closer?" I mused.

"Um, Josh?" Jacob tugged my arm a bit before pointing down the path leading to the house. The two "robots" were walking up the path, letting us get a good look at their fronts. They stood taller than me, and basically looked like a giant steel ball with a square on top and two glowing red lights for eyes stuck to the square. It's arms and legs looked like two rectangles joined by a hinge, with their big bulky hands and squared feet sprouting out of a hole at the end of their blocky limbs. They were almost completely red, aside from a few various-colored buttons on their chest and some yellow highlights that seemed to be added for decoration. I put on my most winning smile as I walked towards them.

"Hey guys, those are cool costumes but you really aren't allowed to be on property witho-"

"GIVE US THE CHAOS EMERALD!" One of the robots shouted in its strange, tinny, monotone voice. I flinched in surprise before I laughed a bit. The Chaos Emerald huh? I guess they were dressed as Eggman Robots

"That's a nice sound system you got in there!" I replied. Truth be told, my ears were ringing a bit from the loud demand. "You should go show the news crews!"

"GIVE US THE CHAOS EMERALD OR WE WILL USE FORCE!" The other shouted, its voice identical to the first. I flinched back again, this time in fear, as they stepped closer. My brother moved forward, anger evident on his face.

"Ok, this has gone far enough, either you get off the property or I'm calling the police." Jacob yelled. He looked about ready to go on a tirade as he marched forward. Until one of the robots raised their arm to the side. We watched as the hand retracted into the arm, and a small pipe popped out… that proceeded to spew fire, burning a patch in our lawn. Me and Jacob both stumbled back and ran into the house, just as Ms. Hannigan was starting to march everyone to the front door.

"Out the back, now!" I shouted, blocking the exit. Ms. Hannigan only gave me a worried look before hurrying everyone in the opposite direction, towards the backyard. Jacob and I heard the clanking metal footsteps get closer and closer to the door as we looked out the window… we only had a few minutes before they would be right on top of us.

"What do we do now?" Jacob asked, worry evident in his voice. "They might try and get Ms. Hannigan and the kids…" The thought had crossed my mind as well, as I began to think of a solution. I looked back at Jacob.

"...They said they wanted the Chaos Emerald…" I said slowly, my mind racing. "...the one in your pocket?" I asked, looking at the lump. Jacob quickly brought the gem out of his pocket, taking a moment to stare at the dark blue gem. "...why?" I finally asked, speaking quietly as we ducked out of sight of the robots.

"Does it matter?" Jacob hissed. "It's just a bunch of crazy cosplayers wanting to roleplay, we have bigger problems!" Jacob pointed to the back door. "We have to keep those things away from everyone else!" I turned my head back to the window… the robot's were nearly at our door.

"...We could totally outrun them, right?" I asked, looking at Jacob out of the corner of my eye. Jacob gave an affirmative nod.

"Those suits don't let them move very fast… I think we'll be ok." He moved towards the door. "They just want this, right?" He looked at me, holding the gem up.

"Yup." I affirmed. "...now, you seriously just got this from a knick knack store, right?" I stared my brother down, looking for any of his tells. I had gotten really good at knowing when he was lying.

"Yeah… I mean, the garbage can in the back of the knick knack store, but yeah." Jacob shrugged. I shook my head in disgust. He was unbelievable sometimes… but he wasn't lying. Explains how he was able to get that thing while he didn't have a job.

"Ok… here we go…"

* * *

Time slowed to a crawl as we burst out the front door, shoving past the two robots… but just like we planned, we made it past them, putting considerable distance between them and us.

What we hadn't planned on was that they were much faster than they looked. Sure, on foot, they were about as fast as a fat lady on a jazzy at Wal-Mart… but then you have to factor in that they had jet packs. We heard the whine of the engines starting up before we turned to look back. The heavy, bulky things suddenly lifted off the ground. They started slowly flying towards us, but picking up speed as momentum began to carry them forward. We both reacted immediately, sprinting forward as fear pumped adrenaline through our systems.

"Turn a corner!" Jacob shouted, pointing to a cross street. "Maybe they'll slow down!" We both rounded the corner and, sure enough, we saw the robot's relentless pace slow… but not by much. They were picking up speed again, getting closer and closer to grabbing us.

"Call the police!" I yell as we turn yet another corner.

"My phone's at home!" He yelled back. I groaned and reached into my pocket, pulling my own cell phone out. I punched in 911 and put the phone to my ear. It rang for what felt like eternity.

"911, please state your emergency!"

"Two guys are chasing us, we need help now!"

The operator seemed a bit startled for a moment before speaking again. "Are they chasing you right now?!"

"Yes, they are literally on our tail, they are using jet packs!"

"J-Jet… hold on, can you tell me your location?"

I look around, unfamiliar with the area. I finally spot a road sign. "Turning left onto Hartford Drive."

"They don't know which way is left, we're heading East!" Jacob yelled as we rounded yet another corner. The robots were getting closer… and I didn't know if I could keep running.

"Ok, listen to me!" The operator spoke calmly. "Take a left at the next crossing and see if you can hide behind the small convenience store on the corner."

I nod. "Left buddy, go!" We sprint left, trying to go as quickly as we can. We see it, the small store, with a tiny alley next to it that we can squeeze into, a space too small for the robots. I grab Jacob's hand and pull him towards the little store, as we shimmy our way through the small alley. I turn and look back in time to see the robots fly past… I let out a soft sigh… I bring the phone up to my ear as we come out of the alley to the back of the building. We rest against the wall, panting.

"...t-they're gone." I say quietly to the operator.

"Good, ok… we're sending dispatch to you now. What did they look like?

"Um… you're not gonna believe me-"

"Josh?" Jacob tugged on my arm a bit. I politely pushed his arm away.

"Hold on buddy, um… they're dressed up in these big robot costumes-"

"Josh!"

"I'm talking to the police! So, the costumes are bulky and-"

"Josh look!"

I growl a bit and turn to look at Jacob, ready to yell and sock him in the arm. He stared back at me, a bit wide eyed, before looking down at something glowing green in his hands.

"...i-is that… the emerald?"

"Sir, are you still there?"

I put the phone up to my ear again. "Y-Yeah yeah, just… one sec…" I slowly lowered the phone again. "...How are you making it do that?" My voice was a hushed whisper… I felt almost too afraid to speak, though I wasn't sure why…

"I-I didn't do anything…" Jacob replied, his voice much the same as mine. "...feel it…!" I carefully reached my hand out. No sooner did my fingers brush the gem did I feel a sudden surge of… something within me. I can't explain what. It was like my entire body was suddenly on high alert. My heart rate sped up, my breathing quickened, and the whole world seemed like a possible threat. I drew my hand back hastily, the feeling quickly going away.

"D-Drop that thing, now!" I ordered quietly, rubbing my hand.

"...do you think this is the real deal?" Jacob asked, looking up at me again.

"No… no way. Sonic isn't real." I said firmly. I stared down at the gem again, glowing in Jacob's hands. "...it… it isn't…" Hesitantly, I reached my hand out again. My fingers trembled as they gently touched down on the Emerald's top. Immediately, that same intense feeling rocketed through my system. I couldn't think of anything that could give that kind of sensation, save maybe a drug. "...so what if it is? Can it help us?" I asked as I pulled my hand away. Jacob slowly nodded.

"Chaos Control." His voice sounded almost reverent as he spoke. "It can teleport us anywhere we want… usually Sonic needs all seven Chaos Emeralds, but I know it's possible to go short range with just one."

Our heads snapped up as we heard a familiar whirring coming our way again.

"...ok, sure, let's give it a shot!" I said quickly. I placed my entire hand on top of the Emerald. "What do you do?"

"Think of a place where we could be safe, then we both gotta say Chaos Control." He instructed.

"Ok, let's… think of our old house." I reply, checking behind him. The driveway across from us had two shadows now… two big, bulky shadows, slowly clunking closer to us. Jacob nods and closes his eyes. I do the same.

"On three." He says quietly. I picture our old white house in my mind, with the tree in the front yard that would always drop its leaves too early. "One." Our door with faded crayon stains. The garage with a dent from when Dad accidentally pushed the gas instead of the brake. "Two." Dad… I missed him… my eyes opened slightly as my mind wandered, bittersweet memories coming to me. I looked up in time to gaze down the barrel of a large gun. Time froze as Jacob slowly said "three" and began to yell "Chaos Control!" at the same time the gun began to whirr. I yelled and pushed him to the side as a bright flash blinded me. I felt something hit me and wrap around my body, constricting my movement as I fell to the ground. The flash died as quickly as it came, revealing me wrapped in a net, the Emerald laying inches from my face, my phone close to it, and my brother gone… My eyes scanned the area frantically as I struggled against the net. He couldn't have gotten far! He had to still be here! I panicked more as I felt a cold hand wrap around me and pick me up, bringing me face to face with a pair of cold, red eyes.

"TARGET NEUTRALIZED." It said in a loud voice. "CHAOS EMERALD RETRIEVED." I turned to watch the other robot pick up the Emerald and store it into a chest cavity. Their jet packs whirred again, before I felt a blast of intense heat as fire shot out from their ports. I felt us rise into the air, slowly getting faster and faster. I watched as we started to move back towards the home, moving higher and higher into the sky.

And just as I started thinking to myself the day couldn't get any worse… I watched in a mix of awe and horror as a gigantic red airship started to materialize into view, whatever cloaking technology it was hiding behind slowly disappearing. I saw the tiny bodies of the media people having a panic attack as their cameras all shot up, the reporters flapping their arms and probably trying to describe the impossible scene unfolding before them. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the situation myself as we drew closer and closer to the behemoth craft. As my eyes frantically scanned the airship, they locked onto one thing, a white logo that stood out proudly along the side of the ship. A round face, two white, empty eyes, a wide, toothy smile, and a large mustache jutting out from either side of the slightly pointed nose. I shook my head, my own brain refusing to accept what my eyes could clearly see, logic still trying to parse a possible explanation. But as we entered the dark shadow of the red ship, moving upwards to the landing platform of the larger than life aircraft, I started to accept the impossible, ridiculous, and almost hilarious truth…

I was being kidnapped by a guy named after my breakfast yesterday.

* * *

As soon as we entered the ship, my two, large kidnappers handed me to two, smaller "wardens," I guess. I'd seen these models of robots many times when Jacob played his games, they seemed to be the standard "easy-to-beat" baddie, like those little brown Goombas in Mario. These lackies were only about chest height to me, round red balls essentially, with a slightly more curved dome to make a head. Two glowing blue eyes, and a row of glowing blue "teeth" were separated by a sharp yellow spike, making a sort of "nose." Their shoulders, hands, and feet were all made from the same, bulky red material as their bodies, but were attached by what looked like rubber hosing or some kind of black, bendable material. They wouldn't have even registered as a threat, were it not for the comically large red and yellow guns they held in their hands. I felt one poke me in the back with the point of the gun, urging me forward. I quickly obeyed. We walked down cold, dimly lit corridors, the tinny sound of metal feet on metal flooring and the whirring of servos the only sounds made.

"...where are you taking me?" I tried my best to sound tough, authoritative. The robots simply pushed me forward again. "...so what, you aren't going to talk to me?" The two ignored my question once again. They either couldn't or wouldn't talk, which did nothing to calm my nerves. My heart was beating so hard I could almost hear it, I felt myself sweating through my shirt. I was in big trouble.

We walked for ages down corridor after corridor. We'd occasionally go up or down some stairs, turn through a door or around a corner, but beyond that, there was no real way to tell where we were on the ship, where we were going, how far we were. I guess it made sense… no need for signs if the robots could just download a map into their CPU or whatever you call it.

I suddenly became aware that mine were the only footsteps echoing in the hall. I turned to see my two robotic escorts kneeling on the ground, almost locking themselves down. I barely had time to register any confusion before I heard a loud whirring coming from somewhere beneath us. A moment later and the whole ship suddenly lurched, sending me stumbling backwards and falling on my rear, skidding a few feet back. I rubbed my sore behind as I tried to regain my balance. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what was going on… the ship was moving, and it was moving quickly. I looked back at the guards, who were still crouched, strange whirring sounds coming from their bodies… maybe they were recalibrating. My eyes went a bit wide. It was my chance to run…

I took off down the hall as quickly as I could, hearing the guards panic behind me. I could feel the ship's momentum working against me, slowing my movement some as I sprinted forward. I risked a look over my shoulder to see the two red robots gaining on me, their feet pounding the floor. I ducked my head and pushed harder, quickly turning a corner. I clipped the wall as I turned, making me stumble somewhat, but I kept running… it was all I could do. But I slowed as I realized there was no way to get off the ship, Jacob was probably not here, and I knew this ship about as well as I knew my way around Area 51… which, for all intents and purposes, this might as well have been. I shook my head a bit and turned another corner, putting on the gas again. It didn't matter. If they were going to take me, I would sure as heck make sure it wasn't easy for them.

Unfortunately, it had been a while since I had gone running… I already felt my lungs burn. I faltered a bit and slowed my sprint to a more lenient jog… hoping that, maybe the bots weren't any faster than a moderate shamble or a brisk walk. I looked behind me. No sign of them. I couldn't quite hear them either, which, for my sake, meant they were either far behind me, or had given up. I slowed more to a quiet, stealthy walk and started to look around for something that could be of use. A phone, an escape pod, an undo button, anything. Every door I came to, I peeked inside. Sometimes I would arrive at some kind of control room or security room (though I couldn't access anything, all of the buttons were locked under glass…). Other times it looked like a workshop with dozens of parts scattered about. Once, I even found a weapons locker room type thing… but all the guns were in cages. Mostly, the doors just contained janitors closets. I guess with all those robots, you get a lot of oil leaks or something… I considered arming myself with a broom… but quickly realized that was dumb. There was no way a simple broom would do anything against a steel robot. Only an idiot would even try.

It felt like hours had passed as I continued to sneak my way around the large airship. It could have been much more, I had no way of knowing. The only light came from industrial bulbs strung along the ceiling, and if there was a clock, I missed all 52 of them that I'd imagine would be in every big room I checked. I was getting tired, I was cold, and, since I had some time to think, I was getting more and more anxious about what had happened to my little brother. If everything had gone well, he should be back at our old house… but some little feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that something had screwed up. "Or someone…" I found myself thinking. I probably wasn't all that wrong. If I had been paying closer attention, then maybe I could have seen the bots in time and had us hurry and hide. Or maybe if I had pulled him away.

I shook my head, gently slapping my cheeks. Of course he was fine. He teleported, which means he went back to our house. Maybe. Most likely. Possibly. Probably. ...right?

I caught myself twisting my shirt in my hands. I needed to find him. To see him. To know he's ok. We had been separate loads of times before, but… this was truly the first time I actually felt apart from him. I started to tear up as a dark, eerie, and very familiar feeling start to creep into me.

I quickly wiped my eyes. "He's not dead." I whispered to myself. It became a montra as I snuck this way and that way down the halls. What was I even looking for…? An escape pod, best case scenario… or an unlocked control room… or something… I peeked around what felt like the thousandth corner today, and finally saw something different… stairs. I felt my heart skip a beat, this was progress! I carefully made my way up the metal stairs, listening for any footsteps that weren't my own. The top didn't bring much as far as changes in sceneries went, but I was thrilled to find another flight leading up right next to me. I turned and continued up, finally feeling a bit more confident that maybe I could make it out of here. The second flight of stairs led to a third, then a fourth, and if my legs weren't burning before, they certainly were now. It wasn't until a fifth flight that I finally noticed a change in surroundings. The walls had turned from a dingy grey to a cherry red, the rather dull floor turned to white tiling, and I could swear that there were a couple of couches or chairs in the distance off to my right. I shook my head a bit before turning and marching up yet another flight of stairs. I was gasping for air now, actually needing to pull myself up with the railing. The only reason I didn't stop for a break was the thought of my little brother alone in the big bad world. Standing outside our old house, or maybe someplace worse, and wondering where I was, what I was doing.

Sixth… seventh… My mouth was dry, I was tasting metal for some reason, and I swear I was starting to see stars. There was no way I was going to last much longer. I grunted and finally let myself sit down on the top of the steps, softly gasping for air… Jacob could wait for just a few seconds while I caught my breath. I needed to be in top form if I wanted to avoid getting caught again. I took a look down the hallway, keeping my head on a swivel, listening for anything suspicious. As I gazed down at the seemingly unending row of doors, a burning curiosity began to grow inside me… what made this place so different? I slowly stood and made my way to the first door I could find. Locked. As was the next one, and the one after that.

I sat down on a cherry red chair, giving my "slightly" aching legs a chance to rest. The corridor still stretched forward, almost endlessly it seemed. I sighed softly and looked down at my knees. "...hold on buddy…" I whispered quietly. "...I'm coming… just hang on for a second more…" I shook my head a bit and stood back up, continuing my trek down the hall.

* * *

I had to have gone up at least 5 more floors, and nothing changed between any of them. Every door I tried locked, either by a deadbolt or electronically. I had spent hours searching, with nothing to show for my labors. Whatever Eggman was hiding, he was insistent that no one discovered it. I sank into another chair, holding my head in my hands. At this rate, I would never make it back to Jacob, let alone make it off the ship.

"No," I lightly smacked my cheeks and stood back up, bouncing a bit. I started to dance a bit, hyping myself up by singing what could barely be considered a song. "You can't think like that, you are getting out of here, you're gonna find Jakie, cuz you can do anything you set your mind t-"

The sound of metal on tile cut me off as I scurried behind a chair, looking down the hall. The stomping got louder before I saw what was making the noise… more of those round robots from earlier. They were running, which honestly looked a bit goofy, more like they were constantly tripping on something, as they took off down the hall. Except for one, one robot in the front that looked different than all the others. It was a monkey, if monkeys had robot arms and a yellow sirens on their heads. But beyond that, it looked relatively not robotic, healthy brown fur, lively eyes (albeit beady looking ones), it even wore a little yellow jumpsuit.

"There he is!" The monkey shrieked in a slightly high-pitched voice. There was a slightly tinny echo to it that reminded me that, yes, this little monkey was in fact a robot. I quickly jumped up from my hiding spot and started to run in the opposite direction, only to run into into another small army of robots, this one consisting of just the round red ones. I stopped, my eyes darting around for any escape route, any way I could shove past them and bolt out of there. I must have hesitated for a bit too long though… I felt two hands grab my wrists and pull them together behind me before snapping something on both of them. I struggled to pull my wrists apart, to find them clasped firmly together. I felt something else, something that felt suspiciously like a gun barrel, poke into my back. "Alright intruder," the monkey pressed the barrel harder into my skin. "Start walking."


	4. Chapter 3 - Across Enemy Lines

It was a slightly odd feeling, being the prisoner of a bunch of short, tin people. I could easily see over the heads of my robotic captors as I was marched up even more stairs. My legs felt like they would give way at any minute as we climbed what were, by my count, 16 flights of stairs and at least 5 more half sets, plus a couple of random single steps scattered throughout a couple of the long corridors. But we finally made it up to a large room, where dozens of the little robots dashed from one place to another, checking panels, adjusting levers, pushing buttons, all sorts of busy tasks. The room dropped about a quarter of the way through to reveal a sort of pit, full of even more screens, buttons, levers, and worker-bots, all of them busily attending to their various tasks. A large pane of glass covered the entire front of the room, almost like a windshield on a car, showing what I can only describe as dozens and dozens of stars whizzing past us. And over it all, on a slightly raised platform, was a large red chair, matching the hue of the rest of the room. Though its back was to us, I felt a shiver run down my spine, knowing who was most likely sitting in it.

"Excuse me, who is this?" A soft, polite voice asked from somewhere in front of us. I stood on my toes, trying to see who spoke, but stopped as I felt the gun barrel press a bit harder into my back.

"Caught this kid poking around down below. He's an intruder!" The monkey pushed me forward a bit, the crowd of robots parting to make room for us. They revealed yet another red robot standing at the front. Well, standing wasn't very accurate… it was hovering above the ground somehow, it was honestly really cool to watch. The robot looked like someone built it out of Tinker Toys, it's arms and body were all just a bunch of black sticks connected to round joints. Its head was a red half-sphere, with two blue eyes and more of those blue teeth, and its bottom was the bottom half of the sphere, albeit in black. Its large red hands were clasped together in front of it as it stared at me curiously… I think. It didn't really show any expression. It looked like it was about to speak, but a sudden jolt from the ship stopped it. I watched as the stars disappeared to be replaced by blue sky and white clouds… it was almost like when someone disengaged from hyperdrive in Star Wars.

"Well done." The floating robot finally said. "He's a funny looking thing, isn't he?" I wasn't sure why, but I felt a blush creep onto my face. I looked down, avoiding eye contact… "Well, I'm sure the boss will be happy to hear this! Come on!" I felt myself being pushed by the monkey once again, this time towards the giant chair. I stared up… even if it was just the back of the chair, I started to feel a sense of trepidation slowly creeping up my spine. I knew who would be sitting in it.

The chair was tall. I don't just mean like a couple of inches taller than me, I mean a full couple of feet tall. If you include the platform it rested on, I would have to guess it was at least 3 or 4 feet taller than me. I felt myself tremble as I tried to imagine the figure that rested just beyond the cherry red plastic back of the chair. The gangly sphere robot cleared its throat.

"Boss, we've got a prisoner here if you'd like to take a look." He gestured to me in a sort of "ta-da" fashion, and I could almost swear he was smiling despite his ability to form any expression. There was a slight shuffling sound, and I could see a pair of shiny black boots shuffle below the chair. Slowly, the chair turned, revealing bit by bit the owner's profile. First, his nose, long (very long), angular, with a point so sharp you could poke holes with it. His portly body next, vested in a red coat with yellow buttons. His large bushy mustache that shot from out of each nostril, measuring at least 2 feet long total. He brought a pair of white-gloved hands to his lips, pressing his fingertips together and crossing his slender legs, made even more slender in the black leather pants he was wearing. He stared at me, examining me from head to toe, his eyes unreadable behind his dark spectacles. I may not know by heart the names of every character from the Sonic games, but I knew this man's name well: Dr. Eggman.

After what seemed to me like hours, the Doctor finally spoke. His voice was low, and gravely, as if he was literally gargling gravel as he spoke. "Who is this?" He asked, turning to look at the spherical bot.

"It's our prisoner." The robot looked at me and lowered his hands. "It looks like he was trying to guard the emerald, so the ground forces took him as a prisoner to prevent any resistance." Dr. Eggman stared at the orb robot for a while more before sighing and reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"...Does he look like he'll cause trouble?" He asked, sounding very tired all of a sudden. The orbed robot looked at me again, then looked at the monkey behind me, then to the mass of red robots behind him. He looked back at the Doctor and shrugged. "I just wanted the Emerald. I never asked for anyone to take any prisoners." He turned back to me, relaxing a bit and shaking his head. His voice took on a different tone, something light and conversational. "I'm sorry about all of this… Good help is hard to find these days."

I found myself just staring back up at him, my ears hearing but not really understanding. I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open a bit as well. Eggman regarded me a bit funnily for a moment. "...you can speak, yes?" He asked. I quickly shut my mouth and nodded.

"Y-Yes, yes sir, I can!" I quickly replied. He chuckled, a rather ugly sounding thing, and shook his head.

"You don't need to be nervous, I won't hurt you!" He exclaimed as he stood and shooed away the other robots. It took me by surprise how tall he really was compared to me. Even as he stepped off his podium, I only reached to about his midriff. It was slightly unsettling, looking up into this villain's glasses and having him smile down at me. "This is just an error in communication… which will be fixed shortly." He shot a look at the small army of robots behind us, who all simultaneously flinched. He stared back down at me, smiling once again. "I'm really sorry about all of this, but don't worry. I'll take you home just as soon as I succeed in my plans!" The way he spoke just made it sound like I had accidentally taken the wrong train somewhere, not just been through what could easily be the second most traumatic experience of my life. But I just found myself nodding again as I stared up at him. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "...not much of a talker are you?" He didn't give me much time to respond before continuing on. "It's no matter! In fact, I could use someone like you to give me a hand. Would you mind terribly?" He clasped his hands together, looking like he was begging… it seemed almost childish in a way.

I know I probably should have said no. He was supposed to be a villain after all, why would I help him? But at the moment, all I could do was continue nodding, like a stupid bobblehead. The Doctor seemed thrilled, placing a large hand on my back and whisking me out of the room and down a few hallways. I was dragging my feet so much you could almost hear my shoes constantly skidding across the floor.

"I want to show you my latest creation!" He said excitedly. "It's rare I get to show my things to other _sentient_ people!" Why was I going along with this? Why wasn't I trying to resist? If Jacob were here, he would have been punching and kicking, and here I was, agreeing to help this guy. I felt my heart drop a bit… I could almost sense my little brother's disappointment in me, almost hear him saying to me "What are you doing? You need to stop him!"

And yet… as I looked up at him, watching him giggle and mutter excitedly to himself, I had to stop and wonder. This is hardly how a villain acted. He almost seemed happy that I was there and willing to have some company. Could I be wrong about him? Maybe he isn't as bad a person as the games had made me believe he was...

We rounded a corner and turned sharply, walking through a door. And just like that, all my doubts left me.

* * *

Inside the room was a large, silver pillar covered in wires, lights, and buttons, connected to seven large tanks that looked to be filled with gases of various colors. It was simple, rather rudimentary, looking just like something you'd expect to see in a cartoon. But the sudden pound of my heart, the sweat forming on my palms… this thing was causing my creepy senses to go haywire, to the point where I even began to feel a bit light headed. I could only stare, transfixed in sheer terror.

"Now, in a few minutes, I'm going to be having a little rendezvous with a certain nemesis of mine." He explained to me as he eagerly pressed a few buttons, flipped a few switches, turned some knobs… "I want to practice what I tell him so he'll be intimidated. I usually do this in front of one of my robots, but they don't give the best feedback." Bobblehead, Bobblehead, Bobblehead. He cleared his throat and looked at me. "Just so you know, I'm going to call you some mean things… they are not meant for you." He nodded at me. Bobble, bobble, bobble. He cleared his throat one last time before cackling.

"You're too late you miserable hedgehog!" His voice instantly took on a different tone, something much more dangerous sounding. "Everything is going according to plan! And, with the final Chaos Emerald in place, nothing will stop me!"

Eggman cackled again and pulled something from his pocket, a yellow gem that looked almost exactly like the green one my brother had. He quickly jammed it into a socket in the pillar that seemed perfectly shaped for the Emerald. He began to cackle harder before stopping himself and looking at me. "This whole thing is going to be full of Emeralds like this one." He said in his more relaxed tone, motioning to more sockets, six others, in the front of the machine. "Then the machine will start, the tanks will empty, bla bla bla…" He muttered, as if he were just practicing a PowerPoint for a presentation. "He'll ask what I'm doing…" He cleared his throat and gave a short cackle to finish the one he started. "I figured out what gives the Emeralds their incredible power! Pure emotion!" He looked at the tanks, motioning to all of them. "And I've just injected twenty times the amount of emotion the Emeralds normally hold into them. With these, I'll be unstoppable! I'll destroy you, then take over all of Mobius! OHOHOHO-"

In spite of the fact that I was there, hearing Dr. Eggman speak, feeling terrified beyond all measure, and everything that had happened before then, some part of my brain just couldn't accept that this was real, that I was in any real danger. It's like when you go through a haunted house, you're terrified, but you're willing to just go along with whatever is happening because deep down you know that it's all just for fun, that neither you nor anyone else would get hurt... But hearing the Doctor explain his plan made reality sink in. I could see the mania in his face, hear the utter insanity in his voice. I watched him scurry around the room, waving his arms wildly, saying something or other to me, but I couldn't hear him anymore. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest.

This was a man on the edge. And he was going to take over a planet. He was real, and it looked like he could actually do it. I felt myself start to sweat a bit, felt my hands tremble. I had met some mean people, but never have I met someone who was actually, truly evil. The fact that he could hide it behind a cheerful facade, that he wasn't trying to just kill me right off the bat somehow, made things even worse. What was funny was that this plan seemed no different than any of the other plans Eggman made in the Sonic games I watched Jacob play. But this time, we weren't playing a game. This was real. And if someone didn't do something, this could mean… well, I didn't know what it could me. I didn't want to know.

I bit my lip as I heard my brother's voice in my head again.

"You need to stop him!"

"Uh-oh… was that bit not good?" I snapped back to focus to see Eggman mid-pose, staring at me. Normally, Sonic but be the one saving the day, but Sonic wasn't here right now. I was. And it sounded like by the time Sonic got here, it would be too late. I needed to do something… anything…

"Oh, no, i-it was fine, I'm just a bit… confused." I replied, doing my best to keep my voice steady. I needed to stall to come up with a plan… "This gas is… emotion?" I looked at one of the tanks, staring into the swirling green contents.

"Yes, and it took quite a while to gather enough to fill those up," Eggman replied, sounding a bit winded as he recalled the process. "Each one contains pure concentrations of emotions everyone feels. For example, the blue one over there is sadness, the red one, anger, that green one you're next to is fear, and so on and so on." I nodded a bit.

"So… those are going to go into that rock thing you put in the machine?" I asked, pointing to the yellow Emerald as I strode over to the machine.

"Yes. That 'rock thing' is called a Chaos Emerald." Eggman pulled the Emerald out of the machine and handed it to me, trusting me enough to touch and handle it apparently. "These gems hold a lot of power within them… they can allow people to do incredible things, like teleport, or gain amazing strength." I gazed down at the yellow gem in my hands, almost entranced by the slight glow it gave off.

"...And you're going to put all of those into this one Chaos Emerald?" I asked, trying to drag this out as much as I could. I needed to remember as much as I could from the games.

"No no, that would never work!" He replied, "Each Emerald draws its power from one specific emotion. Trying to fuel the blue Chaos Emerald with anger for example just wouldn't work." I nodded, though I didn't really hear him. An inkling of a plan began to form… I needed to get him to leave the room.

"...can I see them…?" I asked sheepishly. "I mean… this one is just so pretty looking and… well, I want to see what they look like while they're in the machine."

"Well… I don't know…" Eggman rubbed the back of his head… he looked torn between wanting to keep the Emeralds safe and wanting to show off to his new passenger… I could work with this.

"Aw, please?" I made my best puppy dog eyes, a tactic I had gotten good at after years of having to compete with a little brother. "I bet your big machine looks so cool with all of them in it!"

Eggman took just a few seconds to crack. "...alright." He relented with a smile and turned. I looked back at the tanks… this was my chance. I could use the Emerald I had to break them open and release the gasse- "Here they are!" Eggman turned around again, carrying a cardboard box with "Emeralds" crudely written on the front in marker. There went that plan. Eggman immediately began placing Emeralds into the machine, one after the other. My mind raced, trying to come up with something… I could try to use Chaos Control, but that would leave Eggman with all seven Emeralds, and even I could tell you that would be a no-no… not to mention Jacob would kill me if he found out I let Eggman win. I had to destroy the machine, but how…?

Wasn't there a Sonic game Jacob had where the main guy could make explosions? But… it wasn't a Sonic game...

"There, what do you think?" Eggman waved a hand at the machine, now stuffed full of the other Chaos Emeralds: Green, Blue, Turquoise, Red, Purple, and a Whitish-Grey. I nodded, going to automatic bobble head mode again. The game wasn't about Sonic, it was about another hedgehog, Shadow… and yes, he could make explosions in the game I think… Chaos Blast or something...

"It looks amazing…!" What if the explosion wasn't big enough to do any damage though? "But what if that hedgehog guy you were talking about tries to destroy it? Like blow it up or something?"

"I've built this machine to be virtually indestructible!" Eggman smiled widely. "Not even the power of a Chaos Emerald could destroy it!" He chuckled before adding, "Unless it was already supercharged I suppose…" I still wonder if this was a Freudian Slip or some bizarre, real-life version of Deus Ex Machina, but at the time, I considered it a miracle. If I activated the machine and used the supercharged Emeralds...

Well… it was risky… but I at least had a plan. I acted almost on instinct, my hand shooting forward and jamming the Emerald into the machine. Eggman didn't react immediately as the machine turned on, the lights in the room flickered, and a loud hissing sound filled the area. The gas began to drain, flowing through pipes into the machine, the Emeralds glowing brighter and brighter. And all the while, Eggman only stared, for at least three seconds, before reeling back and letting out a shriek.

"W-What are you doing?!" He yelled as he tried to yank out one of the Emeralds. It held fast within its confines… looks like it wasn't supposed to come out until the process ended. "We're supposed to wait until Sonic gets here, you're ruining my menacing monologue!" I didn't respond, watching the tanks slowly empty until there was nothing left. As soon as I saw Eggman fly back, the Emerald he held popping out of its slot, I grabbed the yellow Emerald back. It felt different in my hand… it was almost vibrating, as if the energy it contained was trying desperately to get out. "P-Put that back in!" Eggman yelled, pointing to me as he stood back up. "We need to drain them out again."

I stared back at him, clutching the Emerald to me tightly. My heart was racing, adrenaline pumping through my body. Everything was moving so fast… there was just one more thing to do. I took a deep breath and conjured up an image of an explosion in my head.

"Chaos Blast."

The Emerald shook as it grew blindingly bright. I felt energy course into my body through my hands, filling every part of me, until it felt like I was glowing. Then, in a sudden rush, all the energy emptied out of me. The world around me went white, and a loud explosion made my ears ring. It was all I could hear as vision returned. I felt weak, almost too weak to remain standing, as I looked around. Though I was seeing spots, I could see that the room was damaged beyond repair. The glass tanks were in shards on the ground, the large pillar was snapped in two, half of it lying on its side, teetering on the edge of a large hole I had blown in the wall, showing the blue sky outside… the wind tore at me, threatening to suck everything out of the large ship. I looked around a bit more and saw Eggman, slumped in a corner of the room, dazed, but still alive from the looks of it.

It took a moment to regain my senses, but I couldn't help but feel a small sense of pride in me as I looked around the wreckage. I did this… I ruined Eggman's plans. I just saved the world. I felt myself smile just a bit before focusing back on my task. The job wasn't done yet. The Emeralds… I had to get rid of the Emeralds. They were scattered here and there, but I quickly gathered them up in my arms. They all clinked and clattered against each other, each one vibrating slightly, just like the yellow one. I stared down at the colorful hoard of gems I carried, admiring their beauty for a moment. They were surprisingly light, each surface completely smooth to the touch, unmarred by the rather violent explosion I had created. I had never seen a perfect gem like this before, one of such rare beauty and power… and hopefully, I never would again. I went over to the new hole I had created and stared out, careful not to get too close to the edge. I looked down at the ground before staggering back, unconsciously letting out a squeaky whimper. I figured we had to be high up but… this took vertigo to a whole new level. I don't think I'd even been in an airplane that took me up this high. Taking a deep breath, I slid a foot to the edge, careful not to look down, and swung my arms, tossing the Emeralds out. They glinted as the sunlight hit them before they fell, gravity pulling them down to the world below. I closed my eyes a bit, panting, realizing just how exhausted I was… that Chaos Blast must have taken quite a bit out of me. I slowly turned to make my way back to the ship, hoping to now find an escape pod.

Eggman was awake. And he looked pissed.

He began to march towards me, and I suddenly found myself frozen. He was saying something, but I couldn't quite hear him due to my ears still ringing, though I could easily guess. He got closer and closer… panic began to well up in me. I could make out two words on his lips as he balled his fists up.

"Destroy you."

I was dead.

I was so dead.

My heart began to pound again, harder than before. I wanted to move back, to get away from Eggman, but I was right up against the edge of a long fall with a very quick stop. Neither was looking like a great option. My eyes scanned the room for some escape, but I realized it was pointless. Even if I got around him, which I probably could, there was a ship-full of his robot henchmen out there that would stop at nothing to find me. There was no escape for me here… my choices were to get killed at the hand of a mad scientist, or jump and hope it wouldn't hurt too badly.

I had wondered one time what it would feel like if you knew you were going to die. I wondered if maybe you just felt calm, full of acceptance. I assure you… it was nothing like that. My head hurt. My hands felt clammy. My mouth was dry, it was hard to swallow. I couldn't move. And the whole time, I found myself only saying "I'm sorry." Mostly to Jacob. Telling him that I was sorry I couldn't get to him. Sorry we were going to be separated forever. Sorry that he would have to grow up alone. I couldn't move… I couldn't breathe…

The ship suddenly shook violently and pitched forward, causing us both to stumble. Eggman fell to the ground a few feet from me. I felt my foot slip, and on reflex, I moved my other, stepping back to try to regain my balance. I found only air. I felt myself fall back, my hand flailing to grab onto something that wasn't there. It's an odd feeling, falling, knowing nothing is going to catch you. You know that feeling when you're walking upstairs in the dark, and you think there's one more stair when there isn't, so it just falls a foot before hitting the ground? That's what this felt like… except it didn't just feel like that for a few seconds.

People always talk about this moment by saying it goes in slow motion, or their life flashed before their eyes. Neither of those happened. The fall was fast, terrifyingly so. I was uncontrollably backflipping through the air, falling without any sense of control. First I saw the ship, then the ground, then the ship again, though a lot smaller this time, then the ground again, though a lot bigger this time, then the ship… I shut my eyes. I didn't want to know…

I guess I was crying. I'm pretty sure I was screaming. Someone even told me later that I had wet myself. I couldn't really tell you. The only clear thought I could even muster was that I was dying. My mind couldn't even process it really. To my brain, death had only been a concept, not my reality. I guess that's why it started to shut down… it just couldn't handle the truth.

Now, if you've known anyone that has ever passed out, they will tell you, it's not a pleasant feeling. It's not like falling asleep, where you don't realize it happened until you wake up the next morning. You are aware of everything that happens. I felt dizzy, both from the prospect of being a splatted mess on the ground and from the sheer sensation of falling. I started to feel my eyes roll back into my head. I even felt like I wanted to puke. The ringing in my ears began to fade as the world around me slowly turned dark.

The last thing I could remember for sure was feeling like a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around me and held onto me tightly. A slight warmth filled me before everything went black.

* * *

 **Hi everyone! So, I promise, I'm not going to do a whole ton of these author's notes (I find them a bit childish), but I felt the need to address something here really quick: I'm taking a few liberties here as far as Sonic Canon goes. First, I understand that this isn't actually where the Chaos Emeralds draw power from, but I like the idea of this, so I'm keeping it. I also understand that the Emeralds don't actually drain energy from you, in fact, it's been brought to my attention that when Sonic uses them, he has described it as actually energizing him. To that, I say that maybe it affects humans differently? And even if it doesn't, I'm going to pretend it does. If it bugs you, feel free to tell yourself that this happens in an Alternate Universe or something... because, technically, I guess it kinda/sorta does.**

 **Hope you guys enjoy the update, and I hope you'll continue to follow and support My Brother's Keeper Re** :Tuned **! If you like what you've been reading so far, please leave a review, and tell your friends about it! The more people read and leave reviews, the more motivated it makes me and the better my writing will be!**

 **If you don't like what you've been reading, please leave a review as well, if it's something I can and am willing to change, I will! I'm always open to criticism.**

 **Thanks** guys **!**

 **-JJ**


	5. Chapter 4 - The Animals Talk Here

….

….

….

….

"Hello?"

"Yes, we need you to come to the hospital right away."

He felt his world shut down, an icy shiver crept down his spine as the world seemed to simultaneously spin and close in on him. The room began to contort and change, the cabinet shrinking down, stretching out, and splitting to turn into two hospital gurneys, the microwave twisting and squishing as it turned into a heart rate monitor, and his pizza melting and bubbling and turning red until it turned into-

He had to look away. He prayed that someone would take it away. He counted to ten before slowly turning back. He was in a hospital room now. Two beds lay in front of him, with two bodies laying on top, covered with two white sheets. He couldn't see the faces, but he knew who they were.

"Can you please identify them?"

He slowly shook his head. "Please don't make me do this."

"We just need you to look, very quickly."

He shook his head again. He couldn't look. Not again.

"Please. We just need a positive ID."

He did his best to swallow past the lump that had formed in his throat as he slowly made his way to the first gurney. His hand trembled as he reached toward the sheet covering the body. He began to sweat profusely. He didn't want to look. He couldn't bear to see it.

He gripped the top of the white fabric. He tried his best to calm his nerves. Just one quick look. Slowly, he began to peel the fabric back. He saw the hair… there was no doubt.

"It's him." He said.

"Please just look at the face."

He turned back to the corpse. He felt tears gather in his eyes. He didn't want to see this. He decided he needed to get it over with quick.

He ripped the sheet back, as if he were ripping off a bandage.

….

My eyes shot open as I automatically began to take some calming breaths. It was dark, night time still it seemed, though, what else was new? My body trembled, but I was used to that. Tears stung my eyes, but I was used to that too. What I wasn't used to was the dull throbbing in my head that seemed to be getting worse. I grunted a bit as I slowly sat up, turning to look at my clock on the nightstand.

Except my clock wasn't there. Nor was my nightstand.

This wasn't my room. It looked like I was in a hospital.

It took a second for my brain to finally kick in, but I quickly recalled everything that had happened to me. The explosion, the kidnapping, getting separated from Jacob…

Jacob…

I looked around the room, hoping for a sign that maybe my brother was somewhere nearby, that maybe he had found his way to where I was.

"...fat chance." I thought to myself. "I can almost guarantee I'm not on Earth anymore… I'm probably light years away from him."

It didn't take long to conclude that my room, and my heart, was empty. I shut my eyes, feeling the tears start to slip down my cheeks now. Jacob was somewhere out there, all alone, probably wondering where I am… was he scared? Was he looking for me? Did he think I was dead? Was he in danger?

I grit my teeth. "Don't think like that." I yelled back at my negative side. "He knows what to do if we get separated. He has Ms. Hannigan's cell phone number. He's probably called her and the police by now." I sighed a bit, letting my jaw relax. "He's safe."

"And alone. Like you are."

I bit my lip to keep it from trembling as my gaze darted around in the dark room. The shadows lurched and slithered around. Things moved in the corners of my eyes. I shot my hand out in a slight panic, quickly searching for some kind of lamp or light source. It took an eternity to find a switch, but as soon as I could, I flipped it. The room was quickly bathed in a warm glow, and I was grateful that I managed to find the switch to the lamp rather than to something that could have been important. I took a few more deep breaths, and quickly wiped my tears. This wasn't the time for moping. I needed to get out of here, then figure out how to get back to my little brother.

Though the first thing I had to do was figure out where "here" was. The room seemed like any hospital room back on Earth. My bed looked pretty standard issue, high railings along the sides with buttons on them to raise and lower certain parts of the bed, as well as a "call" button to get ahold of the nurse. Next to me was the lamp I turned on, resting on a wooden side table. A couple of chairs were drawn up next to the bed, and I noticed a couple more on the other side as well, the rest tucked neatly against the wall underneath a window. A quick glance out confirmed that, yes, it was night. Stars filled the sky, and though I couldn't see the moon itself, I could see the light it cast. Must have been full tonight.

The rest of the room was fairly standard issue. There was a TV hanging off the baby blue wall in front of me, a wooden table beneath it, a bunch of cabinets and a sink off to the side of that, and a door leading to a personal bathroom. And who could forget the cart with all the monitors and stuff right next to me? I didn't see too many bags of fluids, so I guess I didn't need too many IVs. A good sign, right? I saw that my heart rate was a bit high, but was slowly going down. I followed the wire leading out from it, wondering how they were taking my pulse, before ending at my hand. I smiled… maybe I wasn't so far from home after all. They were using that white clip thing they put on your finger, and a pretty normal looking IV inserted on the top of my hand. I sighed a bit, almost feeling myself relax… it was nice to be in a somewhat familiar place. Not that I had been to many hospitals mind you, but I had seen enough of them to know that-

The yellow Chaos Emerald was in my other hand. I frowned a bit. Had I really been hanging onto it this whole time? I lifted it towards the light to gaze at it again. Still no sign that anything had happened… the Emerald was as pristine as it ever had been before. It still seemed to tremble slightly in my grasp, but beyond that, it didn't seem any different. I shook my head and placed it in my lap. I looked down at myself, noting that I was in a hospital gown and (after a quick check down) not much else. Granted, nothing embarassing was showing, but I still couldn't help but feel just a bit… exposed.

I blushed a bit and tried my best to shoo the thought away as I surveyed the room again. Why was I in the hospital anyway? I shouldn't even be alive right now, and yet… aside from what had become a rather painful headache, and another odd feeling that I could only describe as feeling "musty," I felt fine. I tried to remember what happened during the fall… but the last thing I could remember was… well, it felt like someone had caught me… but even then, falling that fast only to be stopped by someone, that should have, at the least, broken numerous bones, in both mine and the other person's body. I did a quick scan of my exposed limbs, looking for anything to tell me that something was wrong, and found nothing.

"...I bet the nurses know…" I muttered to myself quietly. I reached over and pressed the large red button, a small light coming on above it to let me know that they got the call and that someone would be on their way shortly. It probably only took about three minutes before the door opened and someone walked in.

Now, I had seen robots. I had seen mad doctors who towered above me. I had even seen a freaking rock create an explosion. By this point, you would think that nothing surprised me anymore. But the first time you see a dog in scrubs walk in, on two feet mind you, and address you, it takes a minute to process and take it in. And by the look on his face, he seemed just as surprised to see me, awake that is. I wasn't sure where to look… I mean, he looked exactly like how the guys at SEGA would design a dog… his chocolate eyes were huge, his brown-furred arms and legs were thin, his gloved hands were a bit too big, his body was almost bean shaped… and yet it all looked just fine on him. I could only blink as I watched a small smile spread across his face, and his short tail began to wag behind him.

"You're awake!" He said quietly, though it was easy to tell he was holding back a lot of excitement.

"...y-yeah…" Was all I managed to say back. It struck me that anyone else would have probably taken one look at this guy and maybe freaked out a bit more than I was doing. But… I don't know… I guess, after having watched Jacob play so many games, seen so many Sonic characters, the way he looked was just normal to me. The nurse's floppy ears perked up a bit as he heard my voice.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, walking towards me. He was tall. Not as tall as Eggman, but still, tall for a dog. ...Well, I guess he was taller than pretty much any dog… what I mean was that he had to have been at least five feet tall, though that's a pretty conservative estimate. I guess whenever I imagined these guys in my head, they would usually be about two or three feet tall.

"Um… m-my head hurts…" I finally replied, trying to snap back to reality.

"Does it feel like a migraine?" He asked, sitting in one of the chairs next to my bed. I was able to read his nametag now… Chad.

"N-No, not that bad… it just hurts…" I said quietly, rubbing my temple a bit. Chad nodded and grabbed a clipboard that must have been hanging just below the bed railing, writing something down on it.

"Well, I'll go get you something for that." He replied, replacing the clipboard. "You feeling hungry? Thirsty?"

"...maybe just some water, if that's ok?" I looked around a bit before looking back at Chad. "Um… w-why am I here?"

"Oh, uh… let me grab the doctor, she'll explain it to you." He said as he stood. "I'll go get you that water in the meantime. Did you want ice?" I nodded my head. He gave me one last smile (if you've never had a dog smile at you, you're missing out… it's like being filled with rainbows and sunshine) before hurrying out of the room, letting the door softly shut behind him. I shuffled a bit in the bed, trying to find a more comfortable position. It didn't take long before a yellow bird, a hawk if I had to guess, in a white coat walked in, a stethoscope around her neck. Like Chad, she seemed pleasantly surprised to see me.

"So you decided to wake up huh?" She asked, chuckling as she did. She sounded young, early twenties maybe. I briefly wondered if she was really old enough to be a doctor. "We were starting to get a bit worried there for a second." She moved into one of the chairs. "My name's Dr. Mallory Pincock. I was told you had some questions for me?"

"Um, y-yeah…" I stared at her for a moment, still adjusting to the whole talking animals thing. The Doctor was honestly rather pretty, if you didn't think too hard about the fact that you were thinking about a bird in the way you'd think about a human. Her eyes were a pale blue, almost a grey, and her plumage was tied in a ponytail behind her. It didn't really fall in the same way hair would though, it sort of stuck out.

"Well, first, I'd like to ask you a few, if you wouldn't mind." She said as she grabbed the clipboard again. "Like your name and date of birth?"

"Joshua, February 16th, 1996."

"Ok, and is there anyone you'd like us to list as your contacts?"

I frowned a bit and looked down at my lap. "...No one you'd be able to reach I don't think…" The doctor looked at me sympathetically.

"...Well, if it's ok with you, we listed the people that brought you in as your emergency contacts, and they wanted us to call them as soon as you woke up."

"Who brought me in?" I looked back up at her, sitting up just a bit straighter.

"Do you not remember?" She asked, putting her pen on the clipboard. I shook my head.

"Last thing I remember was falling out of an airship." I answered. "I passed out on the way down… that's why I wanted to talk to you, why exactly am I here?"

"What do you mean Joshua?" She asked, taking a quick note.

"I mean, I should be dead, but I feel… well, I feel-"

"Alive?" The doctor offered. "You're quite the opposite of dead. In fact, aside from a couple of scratches, everything about you was just fine, aside from that Emerald being stuck to your hand." She pointed her pen towards my hand only to see that the Emerald was no longer in it, now resting on my lap. Her eyes shot between me, and the Emerald. "H-How did you get it off?"

"...i-it wasn't stuck to my hand when I pulled on it." I replied. "It was completely normal. You mean you couldn't get it off?"

"No, we were planning to get it surgically removed when you woke up!" She replied, gently taking my hand (after getting my permission, of course) and examining it. "...fascinating…" She muttered as she carefully examined my palm in the light. After a few more moments, she chuckled a bit. "Well, I guess I don't need to ask for your permission to get that removed then." She looked back up at me again. "Are you sure you didn't do something different?"

"N-No, I just… took it out of my hand, just like anything else." I shook my head a bit. "N-Now how did I not get hurt at all? I mean… I-I should be dead! Why am I not dead?"

I watched the hawk hesitate for a moment. "...it's… this is a bit odd to explain…" She sighed a bit and replaced the clipboard. "The people that brought you in… they said that they saw you falling from the airship, but that by the time they got to you, you had stopped yourself from falling… sort of." I tilted my head a bit as she continued. "They said you were just floating down slowly, like… like someone was lowering you down on a crane or something."

This certainly left more questions than answers. "H-How?"

"We were hoping you'd be able to tell us." She said, crossing her arms. "Has this happened before?"

"No, never…" I replied. "I'm… I don't have any special powers or anything like that, I-" I cut myself off mid-sentence as my gaze fell on the Emerald. I picked it up and stared at it for a moment. "...I be this had something to do with this…"

Dr. Pincock stared at the gem with me for a moment before slowly standing. "...I really don't mean to pry, I'm sorry…" She smiled at me for a bit. "Do you want to go back to sleep Joshua?"

"N-No, thank you Doctor…" I replied, smiling a bit as well. "I-If you have something to get rid of this headache though, I'd appreciate it."

"The nurse should be ready with it as soon as I leave." She gently rested her hand on the bed railing. "Just let me know if you need anything at all." I nodded and gave her a quiet thank you before she walked out of the room, Chad quickly walking in to take her place, a cup of ice water and a couple pills on hand.

"I just called your emergency contacts," He said as he handed me the cup and capsules, "They wanted to know if you were feeling well enough to accept visitors."

I nodded my approval, and he left once again, leaving me to take my medicine in silence. I dropped the small pills into my mouth and swallowed them down, draining the cup of water as I did. I didn't realize how thirsty I was… I set the cup on the nightstand and, after a few moments, did the same to the Chaos Emerald. I adjusted the bed so that I could sit up in it comfortably and rested my head on the pillow, sighing a bit. After everything that had happened, it was nice to finally have a slightly peaceful moment. I still felt some general unease about my brother's situation, but felt reassured in knowing that at least he would be safe at the house. I wished I could say the same for myself… my thoughts began to turn to Eggman. Did he know where I was? Did he still want to destroy me?

I shuddered at the thought. Not only did I have to figure out how to get home, but I had to do it with a maniac on my tail who's out for my blood. I could only pray that, whoever did manage to rescue me, had some good contacts with law enforcement or something. Or even better, if somehow these people knew Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Hey… there's a thought," I thought to myself, "I need to find Sonic. He knows a bunch about the Chaos Emeralds I bet, I'm sure he'll know how I can use them to get back home."

I won't lie, the thought of meeting _the_ Sonic the Hedgehog did make me feel a bit giddy… while I wasn't a superfan like my little brother was, I was still an admirer. Something about his mannerisms, his laid back attitude, the way he treated others… I don't know, I guess I kinda looked up to him, wanted to be a little more like him. Or something… I don't know, maybe I was a little bit of a superfan...

"Focus…" I said to myself. "I need to see Sonic for help, not to be a fangirl. Now, when these people get here, I'll ask them if they know where Sonic is and how to get ahold of him, then I'll just explain my problem, then everything will be-"

"Uh, Josh?" I looked up at Chad, who was just poking his head in from the door. "Sorry, they're here, you ok to have them come in?"

"O-Oh, s-sure, send them in!" I nodded, quickly looking over myself to make sure I looked ok… I hadn't seen myself in a mirror, but I was pretty sure I looked a mess. Chad nodded and spoke to my "emergency contacts" outside. I grew a bit nervous… these people saved my life, what do I tell them? A simple "thank you" just didn't quite seem to cut it in this case… I immediately began to rehearse what I was going to say to them as I heard some soft footsteps move towards the door. "H-hi there…! U-Um, I-I just… I-I can't tell you how grateful I a-"

My mouth remained dangling open as I saw who the emergency contacts were, or at least, who one of them was. My heart skipped a beat, my voice became caught in my throat, as I took in my new guest. He reacted to my sudden gawking with a slight chuckle, as if this was nothing that he wasn't used to… which, considering who it was, I'm not surprised people acted like I did whenever he walked in a room. Emerald-Green eyes looked me over as he placed a hand on his hip, slowly walking closer. His voice was hushed as he spoke, but it was unmistakably his. "Glad to see you're awake."

I don't think I made any noise aside from a choked sort of squeaking sound. I couldn't believe it.

Sonic the _freaking_ Hedgehog was standing in my room.

...and I was wearing nothing but a hospital gown.


	6. Chapter 5 - Sonic The FREAKING Hedgehog!

Meeting a celebrity had always been pretty high up on my bucket list, right up there with skydiving. Never did I think th at I would be able to check both off my list in one day (if you counted my fall as skydiving). He had only said one sentence and I could already tell he was just dripping with confidence. He stood at the door, hand planted on his hip, a soft smirk on his face… he looked just like how one would imagine Sonic.

So… please keep that in mind when I tell you that my first reaction was to stare at him. With my mouth hanging open. A slight squeak slipping out of my throat occasionally. My brain just sorta… shut down, like in the cartoons. Apparently it was pretty uncomfortable for a few seconds. Luckily, Sonic was pretty used to this reaction. He smiled a bit wider and crossed into the room.

"Never seen a talking hedgehog before?" He asked, grabbing a chair and pulling it close to the bed… very close. Close enough to even rest an arm on the side railing. I snapped back just a bit, noting that my personal space was being invaded. I stared back at Sonic as he looked me up and down. "Think you can tell us your name?"

Name? What's a name? Do I have a name? It took a second for my hat rack to kick back into gear. "M-My n-name's Josh." I said quietly. I was getting tongue tied, and that wasn't helping me function any better.

"Nice to meet you Josh." Sonic replied, smiling. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Y-Yeah, I know…" Oh my gosh did I say that out loud?

"And over there is Knuckles." Sonic pointed to the other side of the bed. I turned to see the red echidna, sitting on a chair close to the window, staring at me with some degree of, what I thought might be, curiosity. I was too fixated on Sonic I didn't even notice the him come in. His arms were crossed, and he had one leg crossed on top of his other.

"...the Emerald?" He asked me quietly. His voice was surprisingly soft, yet still held a certain intensity. I quickly picked it up off the nightstand and held it out to him. He grunted a bit and walked over to take it. "...we couldn't remove it from you while you were unconscious. Do you know why?" I shook my head. He nodded a bit and stared at the Emerald before walking out the door without another word. Sonic chuckled again, though there was just a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"He's… got a one track mind right now." He said, as if trying to apologize. "He's kinda the one responsible for guarding the Chaos Emeralds, especially this really big one called the Master Emerald." I had a fuzzy recollection of hearing that term before, though I couldn't tell you exactly where I heard it from. I nodded a bit, less because I understood, more because I couldn't quite find my voice again. Seeing him up close was… something else. Like the quills on the back of his head for example, I thought he just had like… five long and thick quills, because the games made them look like they were all just long, pointy masses… this close though, you could see each of the small, individual quills, purposely styled back to form those thicker points. The length of each quill was a bit surprising… if they were to hang down, they'd probably reach his lower back at least. He had fur too, all around his face, his arms, his torso, legs I assumed too. It was short, but… it looked surprisingly soft. His teeth showed through his easy smile… pure white… his canines looked dangerously sharp, though they were just hidden enough that you wouldn't really register them as threatening.

But, as cliche as it sounds, what really surprised me were his eyes. They were big, of course, but they somehow looked normal on him, not at all out of place. They were this amazing shade of green too, but again, anyone who had seen him in a video game would have known that. What surprised me were how… alive they looked. And I know it seems like that should have been obvious, I was looking at the guy in the flesh, but… I'd been used to seeing him rendered on a screen, printed on a page, seeing his eyes just… flat and lifeless. But here they were right in front of me… they shone in the pale light coming from the moon outside, they flicked this way and that, looking at various parts of my body and face, and they radiated with… something. I couldn't describe it, but… he looked at me like I wasn't some strange creature that had just fallen from the sky, he looked at me like I was a friend. Or something close.

"Hey, you there?" Sonic snapped his fingers in front of my face a bit, startling me slightly. I didn't realize I had been staring… I blushed a bit and looked down at his muzzle.

"Sorry…" I mumbled. "I'm just a bit… star struck I guess." I blushed harder. It was embarrassing to admit, but… again, he was used to it. I heard him chuckle softly.

"Take a deep breath dude." He said calmly. "I'm just a normal guy, like you." He stopped for a moment and looked me up and down. "...sort of. Gotta say, pretty surprising to see a human show up here on Mobius… don't get many of those." His smile dropped slowly as he looked me up and down again. "...you're a long ways from home, aint'cha..." My breath hitched as I nodded. "...Do you think you could tell me how you got here?"

I drew in a shaky breath and started from the beginning… Jacob finding the Emerald at a junk shop, the strange noises, the robots, the kidnapping… The entire time, Sonic listened attentively, nodding every now and then, asking a few questions for clarification… I saw his quills rise a bit as I talked about Eggman's involvement in my story. "...I need to get back to Jacob. He's all alone…" I took in another deep breath to keep the tears from falling.

"...do you guys have any other family he could go to?" Sonic asked. "Aunt, Uncle, anyone?" I shook my head.

"Mom and Dad were only kids, my dad's parents both passed away a while ago from lung cancer, and my mom cut off all ties with hers… I wouldn't know where to look for them." I curled up on the bed a bit, pulling my knees to my chest slowly. The move made me groan as my muscles ached in protest… nothing too painful, but enough to let me know I wouldn't be making any sudden movements for a little while now. I muttered a quiet apology for the noise, though I don't know if he heard me. He looked to be deep in thought, a soft frown on his face, his eyes gazing into the distance for a moment. He blinked a couple of times as he met my gaze again.

"We've got no time to lose then." I said, his smile returning. "I'll get you back home in no time flat." I smiled back, gratefully, giving him a small nod. He nodded back for a moment before reaching down and picking up a plastic grocery bag (another thing I didn't notice whilst gazing dreamily at Sonic) full of clothing. Sonic pulled out a pair of grey sweats and a matching grey sweater. I blushed as I remembered that I was essentially naked, with a thin hospital gown not doing much to hide my body. "Figured you'd like something to wear, since your clothes were kinda burnt up." He chuckled. "I'm just glad to find out it wasn't because Eggman caught you on fire or something."

"What happened after that though?" I asked, moving closer. "I blacked out, I don't know anything."

"Well, I was already on my way to Eggman's airship with a couple of friends when we saw it explode. We didn't even see you at first until one of my friends, Tails, pointed you out." Sonic sat back in his chair, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "I don't think I've run that fast in a long time."

"Sorry…" I said quietly. Sonic looked at me funny.

"...Sorry for what? Falling to your death?" He laughed a bit, though it didn't look like he meant to. He cleared his throat. "I don't really think you need to apologize for that dude. Besides, I wouldn't be called the Fastest Thing Alive if I didn't like running as fast as I did. Not that I needed to though." He looked far away again, just kind of… staring at me. Staring THROUGH me. I shifted a bit as he continued. "You were just… floating down. Slowly. The Emerald was glowing like crazy in your hand. I grabbed you and you were just weightless for a while…" His smile never left his face, but as he blinked again, coming back, I could tell… he was a bit troubled by the whole ordeal. "All your clothes were charred and smoking, but you didn't look burned at all… A swarm of robots started to come down, searching for you. We didn't know what else to do, so we just… brought you here." Sonic's smile turned apologetic. "Sorry about that by the way… I'm sure the last thing you wanted to see after all that was a hospital."

"N-No, don't be sorry!" I quickly butted in. "It's really ok!"

"Yeah, well, I can at least try to make up for that." Sonic leaned forward again, patting the clothes and setting them on the bed. "I'll get a nurse in here to take all those tubes off you, then you can change and we can get out of here."

"I-I'm free to go?" I asked, sitting up just a bit more. Sonic nodded, his smile growing a bit wider.

"Yup. Doc says that she can't find anything wrong with you, so you're good to go!" Sonic winked and stood up. "I'll wait for you down in the lobby." I nodded as I watched Sonic turn and leave. I remained still for a while as the nerves and adrenaline I felt slowly left, and I felt myself slowly sink back into my bed. That just happened… I just talked to Sonic the _freaking_ Hedgehog, and he was talking back to me. And his hand almost touched my arm! I felt like a pre-teen at a Taylor Swift concert. I remained in this odd euphoric state as nurses came in, removed my IV's, and helped me stand and walk towards the bathroom, my new sweats in hand. As I started to change, and calm down a bit, I began to wonder… where exactly was Sonic going to take me…?

…

…

"You… actually own a house?" I asked, looking ahead of me. The hospital was nice enough to send me back with Sonic in a van (A flying van, by the way, no wheels), which provided a very smooth ride. Sonic looked over at me, seeming to find my question a bit funny.

"Where did you think I lived?" He asked between a couple of soft chuckles. "A cave or grass hut or something?"

"I… uh…" I shut my mouth… I guess I had never really thought about where Sonic lived. I guess I just thought he was always on some adventure somewhere, never stopping to rest. "Just… not in a house…" I looked down a bit, feeling a bit embarrassed. Sonic just laughed and gave my back some friendly thumps, which only made my cheeks heat up even more. He settled back into his seat, looking out the window. I stared at him for a while more before I looked out my own window. There wasn't much to see… it was all dark…

I shivered a bit as I quickly settled in my seat again, returning my eyes to the seat in front of me. I shifted a bit.

"So, how much further is this place…?"

"Not too much further." Sonic draped an arm over the back of the seats, his hand hanging close to my shoulder. I couldn't tell if he saw my reaction, or much at all about his face, other than the soft glow of his eyes. (I'm not kidding, there was a very soft glow to them… it was mesmerizing.) While his actions gave off a relaxed, almost non-caring look, he seemed to be constantly looking over me. I shifted a bit, glancing over at Sonic every now and then, trying to decipher what he was thinking. But all I saw were his eyes, and an odd emotion behind it. Yet just as soon as I saw it, it was gone, replaced with his almost trademark brand of confidence. "Why don't you go back to sleep for a bit. Doc said you'd need your rest."

I shook my head a bit too quickly. "I'm not all that tired." I lied. Of course I was tired, it was two in the morning, and I guess the hospital must have had me on some general pain meds too because I was starting to feel like I was run over by one of those mini motorized cars little kids could get in and drive. I wanted nothing more than to sleep. But I didn't want to. Not if it meant repeating the nightmare… or even worse, getting a part two.

"Well… like I said, we're almost there. We'll get a bedroom set up and get you settled in." Sonic leaned back into his seat just a bit more, closing his eyes. I looked forward out the front, watching a bunch of floating lights marking out a road rush past us. Reality still hadn't set in, as I sat there, just calmly accepting everything going on. Sonic the Hedgehog, just a celebrity. Floating Van, totally possible. I almost died, sure, why not? I wasn't freaking out about this… why wasn't I freaking out about it? Should I have been? I looked over to Sonic to ask…

Only to find him staring at me, that same look in his eyes from before. His eyes darted back to front again, as he blinked a couple of times before letting them close. I shifted in my seat a bit, more thoughts swirling around in my head. Was he staring at me on purpose? What was he thinking about if he was? Does he maybe not like humans because of Eggman? ...oh my gosh, what if he doesn't like me? What if he won't actually help me, he'll just drop me off some place?

My train of thought was derailed by a gentle tap on my shoulder. "We're here dude." The van slowed and gently lowered to the ground with a gentle bump. One of the doors slid open with a gentle whoosh, revealing an inviting, two story house, set against a sky full of stars. It was dark, but it looked like it was a white house, with a black roof. Not much as far as exterior decorating as far as I could tell. As Sonic helped me out of the van, I looked up to see a light on in one of the upper windows, and caught a glimpse of a figure quickly daring out of view. Sonic chuckled a bit. "Looks like Tails stayed up to see you."

I giggled a bit, a rush of excitement entering into me again. Tails was tied for my favorite character, right up there with Sonic. A genius inventor who also happened to be, like, 8. It made me want to be a scientist as I grew up, so I could make robots like Tails did. The door to the house opened up, and I nearly squealed as I saw the small, orange and white fox, his two namesakes swaying a bit as he ran out to join us. And with him came a barrage of questions.

"Are you ok?"

"What happened out there?"

"What did the doctors do to you?"

"Do you need anything?"

I didn't even have time to take a breath between each of his questions. Sonic laughed a bit, holding out a hand to his friend. "Tails, take it easy, he's probably overwhelmed as is."

"I-I'm fine, really." I replied quickly. I smiled and held out my hand. "I'm Josh. And yeah, I'm fine." Tails smiled back, his tails giving an adorable little wave as he took my hand, giving it a surprisingly firm shake.

"My name's Miles, but my friends call me Tails." He replied as he dropped his hand to the side.

"It's nice to meet you Miles." It was a bit odd, calling him by his actual name, knowing full well that his preferred name was Tails. I figured, it might be best to try to keep things professional until he got to know me better.

"No, I told you, friends call me Tails!" He gave me a Sonic-esque thumbs up. "We're friends now right?"

I smiled even wider, a warm feeling flooding my core. "T-That fast?" I asked, my voice squeaking a bit from trying to hold back a squeal.

"Well…" Tails chuckled a bit, looking at the ground a little and holding his arm, as if he were embarrassed by what he was about to say. "I figured, you know… since you just got here, you're probably a little shaken up… I thought you could use a friend."

 _EEEEEEEEEEE~!_

I couldn't help the blush that came as my smile spread across my whole face, I swear. I just nodded like an idiot, forgetting how my voice worked for a moment, barely managing a little squeal of excitement (which sounded a bit like someone stepped on a mouse). I could feel Sonic shaking next to me, trying to hold in his laughter, presumably from my reaction. I cleared my throat. "I-I'd be honored Tails… t-thank you…!"

Tails chuckled again, looking up at me funnily. "I don't know about an honor…"

"It's… a long story." I trailed off a bit, wondering how the kitsune was going to react when he learned that I actually knew a lot more about him than he knew about me. Tails tilted his head a bit as he looked from me, to Sonic, to me again.

"Wait until we get inside." Sonic said softly. Tails nodded and waved us towards the house, already making his way in. Sonic chuckled again, shaking his head a bit.

"Looks like you're already making friends here!" Sonic grinned at me, giving me a gentle nudge.

"I thought I already made friends with you!" I replied, frowning a bit in a mock pout. I may have looked a bit too convincing though… Sonic started to stutter.

"I-I mean, y-yeah no right, of course we're friends!" He rubbed a hand through his quills. "I didn't mean we, weren't, I just meant that you're making _more_ friends now and-"

"Hey, I was kidding…" I said quietly, gently placing a hand on his arm… his… surprisingly fluffy and soft arm. Sonic stopped and looked over at me, before finally sighing in relief and shaking his head.

"Sorry… guess we're all just pretty worried about making sure you feel welcome and comfortable." Sonic walked keeping a hand gently on my back, in case I started to stumble. I looked up at him (wow he's tall).

"Really?"

"Well, yeah…" He paused for a moment, a memory crossing his mind from the looks of it. "We know how it feels, being thrown onto an alien planet with no one you can really turn to." I think he might have felt me stiffen a bit, some reality setting in for me, because he quickly added, "Hey, you've got us now. Me and all my friends. We're gonna get you through this."

My thoughts had already started swimming with Jacob, starting to pull me down… so it was comforting to hear someone say that. I looked back up at Sonic again and nodded, whispering a slightly watery "thank you." Sonic gave my back a gentle pat, which caused a bit of pain to shoot through me. He winced a bit after seeing my face contort in pain.

"The doc gave me some pain killers for you. We'll get some food in you, then take your pill, then maybe get some rest." He said, almost to himself, as if going over a checklist. It took me back a bit, it was almost motherly… He nodded to himself as we crossed some steps and entered the house. Tails was already waiting at the door.

"Everyone's been really excited to meet you." Tails said happily, moving deeper into the house.

"Everyone?" I repeated, looking up at Sonic. He seemed equally confused, shrugging a bit, before guiding me through the house. The inside was as sparsely decorated as the outside… evidence that just guys lived in the house. We passed by a surprisingly clean kitchen and a small laundry room, before entering into the living room.

And if I wasn't starstruck before… you can bet I was now.


	7. Chapter 6 - The First Night

"So… I'm Josh."

Those were the first words I said to everyone. And those words have never sounded stupider together. I immediately felt another blush start to come to my face before Tails gently tugged my wrist.

"Here, come sit down." He said, pulling me towards a couch and offering me a seat before sitting next to me. Everyone gathered in the suddenly warm room stared at me with curious, searching eyes.

The first I had already met. Knuckles stared at me with a bit more concern than last time, now that the Emerald wasn't his primary concern. "How're you feeling?" He asked. His voice was hushed, much less gruff than I first heard it, which was honestly quite welcome. I shrugged just a bit.

"...fine…" I couldn't help but shrink a bit in the seat… with everyone staring at me, I felt like a bug under a microscope. "...just a little pain… that's all…"

"He needs to get something to eat before I can give him the pain meds," Sonic shook the pill bottle he was holding. "You guys got the food, right?"

"It's on its way," Knuckles replied, not even looking at Sonic. "Hope you don't mind pizza." I shook my head. "Cool." Knuckles leaned back in his seat, his gaze never leaving me, as if he were trying to figure out if I was a threat or something.

"...so, you aren't going to introduce yourself or anything?" The other person with us asked Knuckles, a pink hedgehog in a red skirt and headband who I recognized almost as instantly as I had everyone else. She turned back to me and smiled. "Amy Rose. It's a pleasure to meet you." I nodded a bit.

"And you," I smiled. "My name's J-Josh." Once I start to stutter and stammer a bit, it's all downhill from there. "I mean, you-you already knew that, I said… that… already…" I fizzled and sunk into the now familiar couch cushions once again, my face reddening for what had to be the hundredth time that night. Amy giggled a bit.

"Just take a deep breath, Josh," She said, leaning forward. "No reason to be nervous around us."

"Sorry," I clasped my hands together and twiddled my thumbs. "...it's all a bit… overwhelming…" I sighed, closing my eyes a bit, hoping everyone would just stop staring at me. I felt a light touch on my arm.

"Just relax," Tails said quietly. "You're safe here."

"O-Oh, no, it's not that I don't feel safe," I turned to him, looking into his baby blue eyes (adorable!). "It's just this whole situation I find overwhelming, you know? Getting kidnapped by evil scientists and everything…" I folded my arms, looking down at my shoes. "…Not to mention, I haven't really been this far away from my little brother before."

"What happened to your brother?" Knuckles asked, sitting up a bit. I opened my mouth to speak before a soft chime rang through the air.

"That's the pizza," Sonic stated as he hurried to the door. "Eat now, talk later! You're gonna be wanting those pills pretty soon here."

….

A belly full of pizza and a couple of ibuprofen, or whatever this planet's equivalent was, later, the attention was back on me. I did my best to calmly tell my story, but it was so much harder this time. Before, with Sonic one-on-one, I guess I must have been pretty drugged up and emotionally numb still, the events on Eggman's ship still fresh enough that I was still trying to process everything. Now though…

"I'm sorry…" I said quietly, wiping my eyes. I had just finished telling them about Jacob teleporting away. "We just… haven't been this far apart for this long since… ever…" I sniffled. "And… and I'm just… I… don't know what he's doing or if he's ok or-" I sobbed, a shudder rolling through my body. I blushed and shut my mouth, trying to take in deep breaths through my nose, shutting my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the look I knew was on everyone's faces... The funny thing was, I wasn't even sure why I was crying. Jacob was smart, I knew he was safe. He could have walked back to Ms. Hannigans, or called her to pick him up. Yet there was this little nag, this dark feeling in my gut, that told me something was wrong. I wasn't sure if it was my "creepy senses" or not. I didn't want to know. I hoped it was just indigestion from being in a strange new world, surrounded by people that, while I knew their names, their faces, and even their personalities, I didn't really know that well. I felt a pair of hands clap onto my shoulders, and looked up to see Sonic smiling at me.

"Don't worry dude. We'll get you back home!" He flashed me a thumbs up as he moved and sat back down in a plush recliner. "I'm sure wherever he is, he's doing just fine." I felt a little hope enter my core, helping me calm a bit. I wasn't sure how… or why… but for some reason, Sonic made me feel better. Like everything was going to be alright when he was around. I nodded a bit, settling back a bit into the couch. Tails settled next to me and looked up at me.

"Do you think you can keep going with your story?" He asked, nibbling at another slice of the pizza. "I wanna hear how you blew up the ship." I had to admit… it made me laugh softly, the way he asked. It made me sound like I was a hero telling a story to a group of wide-eyed fans. I wiped my eyes.

"Um… well, Eggman's robots took me on the ship, and Eggman showed me his machine that was supposed to make the Chaos Emeralds supercharged or something." I almost felt the mood change as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails sat up a bit. "Um… he said he found the source of their power, emotions or something, and he had collected a whole bunch of emotions so he could fill the Emeralds with them."

"Wait, he collected emotions?" Amy squinted a bit. "...how does that work?" I shrugged a bit.

"He had these big glass containers with gasses in them that… I don't know, I guess they were emotions… I think." I stammered slightly as I stumbled through an explanation, trying to answer any questions that came my way, mostly from Tails, who was asking for specifics that I had no answers to. Sonic finally stepped in.

"Look, the point is, he had a big machine, the Emeralds got supercharged." He said. He nodded to me to continue.

"Well… after that, I uh…" I paused a bit. "...I don't know really, I used Chaos Blast or something like that, grabbed the Emeralds and threw them out the side of the ship… aside from the yellow one, I guess."

"And then you jumped out of the Egg Carrier?" Tails asked, almost bouncing in his seat next to me.

"No, no, I-I didn't jump… I just kinda… fell." I shrugged a bit. "Eggman backed me up against the edge, the ship kinda lurched, and I fell out. After that, I… blacked out. I woke up in the hospital." I thought for a moment. "Sonic said I was floating when you found me… is that right?"

"You don't know?" Knuckles asked. I shook my head. "We think the power of the Chaos Emerald was helping you float down. We assumed you were doing it, and that you passed out from energy exhaustion." I shook my head again. "...come by Angel Island tomorrow, I want to show you something." He stood up (he was tall too…) and started for the door.

"Wait, you're not leaving already, are you?!" Amy stood as well, looking just a bit angry.

"I've been away from Angel Island for too long, I have to get back."

"But-"

Knuckles didn't say another word, simply turning and walking out the door. Amy huffed a bit and crossed her arms. She grumbled something under her breath that I'm pretty sure wasn't rated E for Everyone. She shook her head before looking up at a wall clock. She sighed softly. "...I actually need to go too… audition tomorrow…" She gave me an apologetic look. "I'll come back tomorrow to take you to get some new clothes, how does that sound?"

"T-That would be nice… t-thank you, Ms. Amy." I said. She gave me one last quick smile, before looking at Sonic and giving him a cutesy wave and walking out the door. Sonic rolled his eyes a bit when she was out of sight, before settling back into the chair a bit, closing his eyes, a soft, satisfied smile on his face. I turned to see Tails was in a similar state, relatively calm and tranquil, almost falling asleep. I tried to hold back a yawn, but couldn't do much to keep it from rising up. Sonic cracked an eye open and chuckled before standing with a slight grunt.

"C'mon, your bedroom's upstairs." He said, twisting a bit to stretch his back. There was a soft pop, and he let out a small sigh of contentment before holding a hand out to me. I nodded and gratefully took it, letting him pull me up. Though the pain was largely gone, there was a certain stiffness to my body, like it knew that I shouldn't move it around too much. After making sure I was stable on my feet, he nodded towards a set. "First door on the right."

"You're sleeping in my room." Tails jumped up from the couch, looking a bit excited. "Hope you don't mind. Sonic just… doesn't really… have a room for you to take." He looked over at the hedgehog, who simply shrugged. "He prefers the couch."

"The couch?" I looked over at Sonic now, who just shrugged again. That just seemed fitting for him. He was always on the run, always trying to go somewhere or do something… of course he would take the couch. It wasn't a place to stay for long. It was for someone who was passing through, just staying there temporarily. Even is this was his home, Sonic's real home was wherever he happened to be, whatever adventure he happened to be right in the middle of. Tails smiled and waved a hand, telling me to follow him. I nodded. As I watched him walk away, I had to admit, seeing his two tails in real life… I guess I could maybe understand why people would have made fun of him as a kid. Jacob told me the kit's story… I had to admit, it was pretty heartbreaking what happened to him. Being bullied, just for being different. But looking at him now, there was something about his two tails that did seem unnatural. They looked thinner than a normal tail should have been, almost weaker in some way. The base especially… they seemed a bit twisted up and crooked, almost the way an underdeveloped limb might look. Come to think of it… the way Tails walked… it almost looked like it hurt just a bit. I frowned as I followed him up the stairs and into a room. Tails' bedroom was littered with various bits of machinery, posters, blueprints, everything a little mechanic could dream of. Part of the room looked cleaned up, a mattress on the ground, covered with a comfortable looking blanket and a soft pillow. I smiled and sighed happily, letting myself fall onto the mattress. It was warm, cozy, and… honestly, I was almost about to fall asleep when Tails shook me a bit.

"Hey, you're not sleeping there, you got the bed." He said, chuckling again. I quickly sat up.

"N-No no, I can't, I… that's your bed!" Tails laughed a bit more.

"Hey, relax! You just got out of the hospital, so you should sleep in a bed to make sure you don't get hurt more." Tails pulled me up to my feet again… he was strong for being so small. He pushed me to the bed, practically making me fall onto it. There was a bit of pain there, for sure. "Get some rest, ok?" I looked back at him to try to argue, but he was already resting on the mattress, his tails curled around himself like a makeshift blanket. I finally decided to get comfortable on the bed, covering myself with a few blankets. I did my best to let my eyes drift closed, to try to sleep… but after all the excitement, I wasn't sure if it was going to come easy. I looked over at Tails to see if he had already drifted, only to see two softly glowing blue eyes looking back at me. The eyes glow a bit here, apparently.

"...are you going to tell me to go to sleep again?" I asked quietly. Tails chuckled and shook his head.

"Guess not. Can't sleep?" He asked, sitting up on his arm. I shook my head. "I mean, I totally understand, but… you should at least try."

"I know… I… usually when I wake up, I can't go back to sleep," I sighed softly, leaning up on the bed, mirroring Tails. "Especially not with everything else going on…" I drifted off a bit in thought. Thinking back to my nightmare.

"...else?" Tails sat up a bit. "There something else that happened today?"

"Oh, no, sorry." I shook myself from my trance. "Just… meeting you, kidnapped by Eggman… _that_ else." Tails nodded.

"I'm sure it's a lot," he said, somberly. "You ever thought you would be this far from home before?" I shook my head. "I know you're probably a bit scared-"

"Not yet…" I admitted. "...The adrenaline is still kinda… pumping through me."

"Well… if you do get scared, don't be. We're gonna get you home," Tails perked up a bit. "And in the meantime, we're gonna make sure you have a good time here. It'll be like an adventure!"

"You mean a vacation?" I asked, laughing a bit.

"I don't think you'll be doing a ton of relaxing here!" Tails smiled. "You'll see. With Sonic around, it's pretty much action 24/7."

I felt my pulse pound a bit. I couldn't help but smile just a bit wider, feel the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. This was going to be quite the adventure… and as long as the adrenaline was pumping through me, I was ready for the ride.

Of course, the thing about adrenaline, it doesn't last forever. Tails and I spoke for a while more, me asking him questions about the new world I was in, him trying to assure me that everything was going to be ok. But eventually, he fell asleep, leaving me alone to my thoughts. Like I said, once I was awake, I had a hard time going back to sleep. And that night, I didn't sleep at all. At first, I was excited. Look where I was! Sonic's world! And I even met the blue blur himself! And Tails and Knuckles and Amy and…  
Eggman… I shuddered again, something that was becoming a regular occurence I noted. I never thought that meeting the admittedly comical villain in the video games would be so terrifying in real life… I almost died…

And then there was the matter of Jacob. Sonic assured me he was safe at home, that he made it back to the orphanage with Ms. Hannigan… but…

I felt my stomach churn a bit. This time, without a doubt… my creepy senses were acting up. Hard. I knew, I just knew… something was wrong. And the fact that I couldn't see what it was made things all the worse. I was used to seeing the trouble, used to knowing, or at least having an inkling, of what was going on, like… really vague Spider Senses. There was trouble million, if not billions or more miles away from me, and I couldn't tell what it was, just that it concerned Jacob in some way. And unless I could somehow figure out some way home, I never would.

What if I never made it home…

I felt my heart stop for just a moment before I shoved the thought away as quickly as I could. I was going home. I had to. The question was, how? Chaos Control, sure, but… it seemed like I would need more than just one or two Emeralds… all seven… why did I have to throw them, I had no idea where we were flying over. And for all I know, we were so high up, the wind could have scattered them even further! They could have fallen in the ocean, or someone could have stolen them, or-

It took a second to realize I was pulling on my hair until I felt a tugging pain in my skull. I dropped my hands down, covering my face. Everything was feeling so… overwhelming. I could feel tears start to form, the walls closing in on me. I quickly pulled the covers of the unfamiliar bed over myself, shutting my eyes tightly. I knew I wouldn't sleep. But I could try. Or pretend. Pretend that I wasn't softly sobbing to myself, biting a knuckle to keep myself quiet. Things would be better when the sun came up.

At least… that's what I always told myself. I prayed it would be true today. It was really all I could do.


End file.
